INFORMATION 


FOR 


I  MI  ]M  IGRANT8 


INTO  THE 


STATE  OF  LOUISIANA. 


PUBLISHER  OFFICIALLY 


BY  J.  O.  KATHMAN, 

CHIEF  OF  THE  BUREAU  OF  IMMIGRATION. 


NEW  ORLEANS: 

PRINTED  AT  THE  REPUBLICAN  OFFICE,  57  ST.  CHARLES  STREET. 

1868. 


I 


1 


v~w9-  iWJl  rw,.  Lei. . 


330.  t>3 


< 

i 


do 

Q~ 


AN  ACT 

TO  ORGANIZE  A  BUREAU  OF  IMMIGRATION,  TO  PRESCRIBE  THE  DUTIES 
THEREOF,  AND  TO  PROVIDE  FOR  THE  EXPENSES  OF  THE  SAME. 

Section  1.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Bepresentatives 
of  the  State  of  Louisiana,  in  General  Assembly  convened,  That  a  Bureau 
of  Immigration  shall  be,  and  is  hereby  established  in  the  city  of 
New  Orleans,  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging,  immigration  to  the 
State  of  Louisiana,  by  diffusing  information  abroad,  and  protecting 
and  assisting  such  immigrants  as  may  settle  therein. 

Sec.  2.  Be  it  further  enacted,  dee.,  That  the  Bureau  established  by 
the  first  section  of  this  act,  shall  be  under  the  charge  of  a  citizen  of 
the  State  of  Louisiana,  who  shall  be  entitled  Chief  of  the  Bureau. 

Sec.  3.  Be  it  further  enacted,  &c.,  That  the  chief  of  said  Bureau  of 
Immigration  shall  be  appointed  by  the  Governor  of  the  State,  by  and 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  for  the  term  of  two  years, 
whose  salary  shall  be  thirty-five  hundred  dollars  per  annum,  to  be 
paid  quarterly,  on  his  own  warrant  on  the  State  Treasurer,  approved 
by  the  Auditor  of  Public  Accounts. 

Sec.  4.  Be  it  further  enacted,  &c.,  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Immigration,  to  collect  and  have  published,  in 
English,  French  and  German,  and  such  other  languages  as  he  may 
think  proper,  statistical  information  setting  forth  the  advantages  of 
soil,  climate  and  productions,  which  Louisiana  presents  to  the  enter¬ 
prising  immigrant;  to  publish  and  distribute  abroad,  in  the  afore¬ 
mentioned  languages  and  such  others  as  he  may  select,  this  act  of 
the  General  Assembly,  and  all  other  acts  thereof  as  may  relate  to 
the  encouragement  of  immigration  and  the  protection  of  the  immi¬ 
grant;  to  appoint  agents  of  immigration  in  foreign  countries,  whose 
salaries  shall  not  exceed  the  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars  each  per 
annum,  and  whose  number  shall  not  exceed  five;  to  assist  any 
and  all  immigrants  from  said  countries  who  may  desire  to  settle  in 
Louisiana,  by  giving  counsel  and  information,  in  making  contracts 
for  public  means  of  transportation  to  bring  to  the  port  of  New  Or¬ 
leans  at  the  lowest  rates  of  passage  possible  such  immigrants  as 
may  elect  to  come  to  said  port,  and  to  make  arrangements  with 
steamboats,  railroads  and  other  public  means  of  transportation  to 
convey  immigrants  who  may  elect  to  .settle  in  Louisiana  to  their 
place  of  destination  in  a  comfortable  manner  and  at  the  least  expense 
possible;  to  use  every  effort  to  inform,  advise  and  assist  immigrants 


to  Louisiana,  in  order  to  protect  them  against  imposition  or  false  in- 
I  formation;  to  negotiate  with  any  steamship  company  to  place  a  line 
of  two  or  more  steamers  between  New  Orleans  and  Bremen,  and 
|  other  foreign  ports  from  which  large  numbers  of  persons  emigrate  to 
the  United  States;  to  visit  and  examine  all  vessels  landing  at  the 
port  of  New  Orleans  which  have  immigrants  on  board,  and  to  make 
a  register  of  such  immigrants,  showing  names,  ages,  places  of  birth, 
sex,  profession,  trade,  destination — which  register  shall  be  filed  in 
his  office;  to  report  to  the  Bureau  of  Immigration  of  the  United  States, 
at  Washington  City,  all  infractions  of  the  Passage  Acts  of  the  United 
j  States;  to  make  a  report  annually  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
State,  of  the  number  of  immigrants  who  have  arrived,  with  a  tabular 
statement  showing  ages,  places  of  birth,  sex,  trade,  profession  and 
destination  of  all  immigrants  who  may  have  arrived  during  the  year 
at  the  port  of  New  Orleans,  together  with  such  information  and 
recommendations  as  in  his  opinion  may  promote  immigration  to  the 
State  of  Louisiana,  together  with  a  full  statement  of  the  expenses 
and  operations  of  the  Bureau :  Provided  nothing  in  this  section  shall 
be  so  construed  as  to  make  the  State  liable  for  the  passage  money  of 
any  immigrant  coming  into  this  State. 

Sec.  5.  Be  it  further  enacted ,  &c .,  That  the  Chief  of  Bureau  shall 
have  power  to  appoint  one  or  more  clerks,  as  may  be  found  necessary, 
not  to  exceed  three,  at  a  salary  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  each  per 
annum. 

Sec  6.  Be  it  further  enacted ,  &c .,  That  the  sum  of  fifteen  thousand 
dollars  be,  and  is  hereby  appropriated  to  pay  the  salaries  of  the 
chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Immigration,  and  expenses  of  said  Bureau  to 
be  paid  out  of  any  money  in  the  Treasury  not  otherwise  appro¬ 
priated. 

Sec.  t.  Be  it  further  enacted,  dec.,  That  this  Act  shall  take  effect 
from  and  after  its  passage. 

[Signed]  J.  B.  ELAM, 

Speaker  pro  tem.  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

[Signed]  ALBERT  VOORHIES, 

Lieutenant  Governor  and  President  of  the  Senate. 

Approved,  May  It,  1866. 

*  [Signed]  J.’ MADISON  WELLS, 

Governor  of  the  State  of  Louisiana. 

A  true  copy. 

[Signed]  J.  H.  Hardy, 

Secretary  of  State. 

i  \  fH 


I 

r|,"'  , 

PREFACE. 


This  Bureau  has  been  organized  by  the  State  for  the  purpose  of 
rendering  assistance  to  immigrants  in  finding  homes,  lands,  and 
employment  of  all  kinds;  with  this  view  our  circulars  have  been 
issued,  soliciting  private  and  public  aid  and  information,  and  an 
extensive  correspondence  opened  with  all  parts  of  the  State  and 
even  with  persons  in  adjoining  States,  and  the  Bureau  is  now  in 
daily  receipt  of  letters  and  verbal  communications  of  the  most 
responsible  character.  A  vast  mass  of  information  has  been  thus 
accumulated,  and  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  is  enabled  to  give  every 
species  of  information  which  may  even  remotely  pertain  to  his 
position.  A  few  letters  selected  from  the  mass  on  file  have  been 
inserted  in  this  pamphlet,  simply  to  show  the  character  of  the 
different'  propositions  made  by  reliable  and  responsible  parties  in 
various  portions  of  the  State.  These  are  sufficient  to  show  some  of 
I  the  terms  and  conditions  upon  which  lands  may  be#  acquired,  but 
|  |  they  by  no  means  exhibit  all.  Indeed,  there  are  so  many  propositions 
I  on  file  with  the  Bureau  that  it  may  be  said  that  immigrants  can 
obtain  lands  of  every  quality,  in  any  quantity,  and  on  almost  any 
|  terms  that  could  be  asked.  Not  only  can  information  be  given  as  to 
|  the  purchase  of  lands,  but  as  to  where  and  how  the  best  and  cheap- 
I  est  may  be  had.  But  this  Bureau  is  crowded  with  innumerable  ap- 
i  !  plications  from  this  and  other  States,  for  agriculturists,  horticulturists, 

|  vine  dressers  and  wine  makers,  stock  raisers,  mechanics  of  every 
trade,  and  especially  for  females  for  general  house  work,  such  as 
j  cooks,  washers  and  ironers,  chambermaids,  nurses,  etc.  Good  j 
positions  can  be  secured  in  perfectly  healthy  localities  for  as  many 
immigrants  as  may  choose  to  come,  in  any  of  the  above  employ- 
i  ments,  at  good  wages,  by  the  month  or  by  the  year,  or  by  several 
years.  The  wages  for  females  average  from  ten  to  twenty  dollars 
per  month. 

J.  C.  KATHMAN, 

Chief  of  the  Bureau. 


EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT, 

State  of  Louisiana, 

New  Orleans ,  February  11,  1868. 

J.  C.  Kathman, 

Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Immigration,  State  of  Louisiana: 

Sir — I  have  carefully  read  the  pamphlet  compiled  by  you,  setting 
forth  the  agricultural  and  other  advantages  of  the  State  of  Louisiana 
to  immigrants,  in  seeking  homes,  lands  and  employment.  I  do  not 
consider  that  anything  therein  said  is  exaggerated.  A  residence  of 
forty  years  in  the  Slate,  devoted  to  agricultural  pursuits,  enables  me 
to  testify  from  actual  experience  in  this  matter.  Louisiana,  in  the 
productiveness  of  her  soil  and  her  geographical  position,  is  far  ahead 
of  any  of  the  States  in  America. 

Trusting  that  your  efforts  to  invite  population  to  settle  and  culti¬ 
vate  her  rich  lands,  may  prove  successful, 

I  remain,  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

[Signed]  JOSHUA  BAKER, 

•  Governor  of  Louisiana. 


/ 


INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS  INTO  LOUISIANA. 


One  glancing  at  the  map  of  the  United  States  must  have  his  eye 
and  attention  arrested  by  the  gigantic  river  which,  rising  in  the 
Rocky  Mountains  near  the  uppermost  limit  of  the  country  and  flow- 
1  ing  southeasterly  and  south  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  divides  the 
United  States  into  nearly  two  equal  parts.  This  mighty  stream,  the 
Mississippi,  flowing  through  twenty  degrees  of  latitude  from  north 
to  south,  traversing  in  its  course  about  four  thousand  five  hundred 
miles,  and,  with  its  tributaries,  navigable  for  steamboats  nearly 
the  whole  year  in  all  its  extent,  and  the  entire  year  in  its  lower  parts, 
empties  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  in  29  degrees  north  latitude.  For 
the  last  eight  hundred  miles  on  the  right  bank,  and  for  three  hundred 
and  fifty  on  the  left  bank,  it  washes  the  soil  of  Louisiana. 

Out  of  over  thirty  millions  of  acres  of  land  which  Louisiana  con¬ 
tains,  more  than  eight  millions  were  formed  by  the  deposits  brought 
down  by  this,  the  largest  river  in  the  world,  which  deposits  have 
been  gathered  by  ten  thousand  minor  streams  from  ten  thousand  dif¬ 
ferent  hills  and  plains  of  varied  formation,  and  make  a  compost 
which  surpasses  any  soil  in  the  world  in  its  natural  fertility. 

Soon  after  the  discovery  of  the  Mississippi,  in  1663,  by  Marquette 
and  Joliet,  two  French  missionaries,  the  geographical  position  of 
Louisiana  pointed  it  out  as  a  most  valuable  acquisition  for  France. 
It  was  explored  in  1682,  by  La  Salle,  and  named  Louisiana  in  honor 
of  Louis  XIV.  Iberville  was  ordered  in  1699  to  make  a  settlement 
in  the  new  territory.  This  settlement  was  made  about  two  hundred 
miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  in  the  limits  of  the  present 
parish  of  Iberville.  New  Orleans  was  settled  in  ltlU  The  French 
retained  possession  until  1 T 62,  when  the  whole  territory  was  ceded 
by  France  to  Spain,  and  the  Spanish  held  it  until  1800,  when  they 
transferred  it  again  to  France.  In  1803,  only  three  years  after 
France  had  recovered  this  magnificent  empire,  Napoleon,  fearing 
that  England  would  rob  France  of  this  territory,  reluctantly  sold  it 
to  the  United  States,  for  $15,000,000. 

In  1812  that  portion  of  the  territory  now  known  as  Louisiana,  was 
made  a  State  in  the  Federal  Union.  During  the  French  domination 
in  Louisiana,  large  numbers  of  Germans  were  invited  into  the  ter¬ 
ritory,  and  several  extensive  settlements  were  made  by  them. 

Louisiana,  having  been  settled  by  the  French,  Spanish  and  Germans, 
2 


I  10  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


I  is  more  European  than  any  State  of  the  United  States.  Its  laws, 
ordinances  and  judicial  advertisements  are  required  to  be  printed  in 
English  and  French,  and  it  is  now  proposed  to  add  German  also.  Of 
the  357,456  white  population  of  Louisiana  in  1860,  81,029  were 
!  foreign  born — that  is,  about  one-fourth  of  the  white  population  was 
composed  of  foreign  immigrants.  This  proportion  has  largely  in¬ 
creased  since  the  war  began,  owing  to  various  causes,  and  nearly 
'  four  thousand  emigrants,  principally  German,  have  located  in  Louis¬ 
iana  during  the  year  1867.  It  may  now  be  safely  estimated  that 
more  than  one-fourth  of  the  white  population  is  foreign. 

The  total  population  of  Louisiana,  since  owned  and  occupied  by  the 
United  States,  was  in  the  several  decades  as  follows: 


Year  1810 . Population  76,556 

“  1820  “  153.407 

“  1830  “  215,739 

«  1840  “  352,411 

“  1850  .  “  507.762 

“  1855  “  587,774 

“  1860  “  708,002 


Of  the  708,002,  357,456  were  white,  while  350,373  were  colored;  ! 
owing  to  the  great  mortality  among  the  blacks  during  the  war,  the  j 
whites  have  largely  gained  on  the  blacks,  and  as  the,  colored  popula-  ; 
tion  cannot  increase  by  foreign  emigration,  as  the  whites  may  do, 
the  blacks  will  henceforth  fall  into  a  steadily  diminishing  minority. 

The  following  table  will  show  the  proportion  in  which  the  principal 
States  of  Europe  were  represented  in  our  foreign-born  population  in 
1860: 


Ireland . 

Germany . 

France  . 

England. 

...28,207  Spain . 

...24,614  Scotland . 

...14,938  Italy . 

.  . ..  3,989  West  Indies. 

.  1.806 

.  1,051 

.  1.134 

1,154 

In  1850  the  proportion 

was  as  follows: 

Ireland . 

...24,260  Great  Britain . 

.  4.794 

Germany . 

...17,887  Spain . 

.  1.417 

France  . 

. . .  11,452 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  German  element  is  gaining  over  the  others, 
and  especially  within  the  last  two  years  this  increase  has  been  more 
|  marked. 

I  COMMERCIAL  AND  GEOGRAPHICAL  POSITION. 

If  Louisiana  were  important  to  France,  its  geographical  position 
makes  it  far  more  so  to  the  United  States.  Containing  within  her 
1  borders  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  great  outlets — the 
Atchafalaya,  the  Plaquemine,  and  the  Lafourche — all  the  heavy 
freights  from  the  vast  and  populous  regions  drained  by  the  numerous 
tributaries  of  the  great  river  are  again  passing  for  eight  hundred 
miles  through  her  borders,  seeking  the  cheaper  water  transportation 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  11  j 

- T - - - 

)  in  preference  to  transportation  by  railroad.  The  grain  and  provision 
trade  of  the  Great  West  is  steadily  centering  at  New  Orleans,  and,  j 
with  the  improved  and  expanding  facilities  for  cheap  transportation,  j 
but  a  few  years  will  elapse  before  New  Orleans  will  become  the 
largest  provision  market  in  the  world.  Lying  as  Louisiana  does,  so 
near  the  tropics,  her  ports  are  always  open.  No  fogs  or  freezes  ever 
;  prevent  access  to  her  harbors,  as  is  the  case  too  often  with  the  ice¬ 
bound  harbors  of  Boston,  New  York  and  other  northern  Atlantic  ports. 
Previous  to  the  war,  New  Orleans  was  the  second  commercial  port 
in  the  United  States,  New  York  alone  taking  precedence  over  her. 

In  spite  of  the  devastation  of  the  territory  surrounding  it,  New 
Orleans  is  giving  evidence  that  she  will  soon  be  not  only  the  second, 
but  the  first,  commercial  city  in  the  United  States.  It  needs  but  the 
completion  of  the  work  of  reconstruction,  and  the  restoration  of 
Louisiana  to  her  full  rights  as  one  of  the  Federal  States,  to  give  an 
|  impetus  to  trade  which  will  rapidly  build  up  New  Orleans.  Not¬ 
withstanding  the  war,  she  has  increased  her  population  from  168,000 
in  1860,  to  260,000  at  the  present  time.  Texas  is  rapidly  filling  up 
with  emigrants  from  abroad  and  all  parts  of  the  Union,  but  owing 
to  the  want  of  interior  navigation  and  good  harbors  on  her  coast,  the  j 
trade  of  Texas  must  ^centre  at  New  Orleans,  and  when  the  State  of  j 
Louisiana  shall  have  carried  out  the  extended  system  of  railroads 
now  in  progress  and  soon  to  be  completed,  all  the  manufacturing  for 
Texas  and  the  adjacent  States,  and  the  countries  south  of  us,  will  be 
done  in  Louisiana,  and  we  shall  from  this  time  forward  need  the  aid 
of  skilled  laborers,  mechanics  and  artisans  in  every  branch  of  indus¬ 
trial  employment.  Men  will  not  go  thousands  of  miles  into  the 
interior  to  manufacture  articles  which  have  to  be  carried  to  the  ocean 
by  long  and  expensive  transportation  overland  by  railroad  or  by  un¬ 
certain  water  navigation,  when  they  have  better  facilities  for  manu¬ 
facturing  the  same  articles  on  or  in  close  proximity  to  the  seaboard. 

|  The  people  of  the  South  have  neglected  the  cultivation  of  the  mechan¬ 
ical  and  manufacturing  arts,  and  as  it  will  take  a  generation  to 
educate  them  to  such  arts,  we  shall  be  compelled  to  depend  upon  | 
foreign  emigration  to  supply  our  wants  in  these  respects.  The  entire 
i  coast  line  of  Louisiana  is  one  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty-six 
miles,  being  greater  ihan  that  of  any  other  State  in  the  Union  except, 
perhaps,  Florida,  California  and  Texas.  This  measurement  in-  j 
eludes  all  the  indentations  of  the  shore  line,  but  not  the  numerous  out¬ 
lying  islands  attached  to  the  State.  These  make  an  additional  line 
j  of  nine  hundred  and  ninty-four  miles,  making,  together,  a  total  of 
two  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  mainland  and  island  j 
sealine.  In  addition  to  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi,  the  whole 

| - - — . . 


12  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


coast  is  penetrated  by  excellent  harbors  for  vessels  of  light  draft, 
and  the  principal  of  these  are  in  the  mouths  of  the  larger  rivers  and 
bayous,  all  of  which  extend,  with  good  navigation,  far  into  the  inte¬ 
rior  of  the  State.  Not  only  has  Louisiana  the  great  commercial 
advantages  of  a  shoreline  of  such  enormous  extent,  but  she  has  within 
her  borders  more  navigable  streams  and  a  greater  extent  of  inland 
navigation  than  can  be  found  in  any  other  five  States  of  the  United 
States  combined,  and  more  than  can  be  found  in  any  other  country  cf 
similar  area  upon  the  globe.  The  distinguished  geographer  and 
civil  and  hydraulic  engineer,  Mr.  G.  W.  R.  Bailey,  who  has  published 
the  best  map  of  Louisiana,  estimates  the  inland  navigation  of  the 
State  at  more  than  twenty  thousand  miles.  This  vast  navigation  is 
fairly  distributed  throughout  an  area  of  forty-seven  thousand  two 
hundred  and  fifty-nine  square  miles,  and  gives  Louisiana  great 
advantages  over  any  other  country  of  the  world  in  point  of  cheap 
and  certain  transportation  at  all  seasons  for  her  products.  Railroads 
nor  any  other  mode  of  conveyance  can  at  all  compare  with  water 
transportation  for  cheapness  and  the  ease  with  which  it  may  be  con¬ 
ducted.  There  is  scarcely  any  point  in  Louisiana  that  is  twenty 
miles  from  navigation. 

Wherever,  therefore,  the  immigrant  may  locate  in  Louisiana,  and 
|  whatever  may  be  his  occupation,  he  can  always,  in  one  or  two  days* 
time,  push  his  products,  goods,  wares  or  manufactures  by  the  cheap¬ 
est  mode  of  transportation,  out  to  the  Gulf  and  the  markets  of  the 
world;  and  may  supply  himself  with  such  articles  as  he  may  need,  at 
first  cost.  The  immigrant  to  the  Northwestern  States  finds  himself 
far  in  the  interior,  and  can  send  out  his  handiwork  and  products  to 
the  seacoast  only  by  a  thousand  miles  or  more  of  expensive  railroad 
transportation,  which  consumes  one-half  or  two-thirds  of  the  proceeds 
of  his  labor  and  skill.  It  is  most  important  to  the  farmer  or  manu¬ 
facturer  that  he  should  be  able  to  get  his  products  to  market  quickly 
and  at  little  cost,  in  order  that  he  may  realize  nearly  their  full  market 
value  for  himself. 

THE  LAWS  OF  LOUISIANA. 

The  emigrant  landing  in  a  foreign  country  where  he  expects  to 
make  his  home,  finds  one  of  his  greatest  embarrassments  to  be  his 
want  of  familiarity  with  the  new  system  of  laws  by  which  he  is 
surrounded,  and  by  which  all  his  actions  and  rights,  his  person  and 
his  property,  are  governed.  Louisiana  offers  to  the  emigrant  from  the 
continent  of  Europe  peculiar  advantages  in  this  respect,  as  she  is 
the  only  State  in  the  Union  where  the  law  of  continental  Europe, 
that  is,  the  civil  law,  prevails.  Acquiring  her  system  of  laws  from 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  13  [  I 

- T - j 

the  Civil  Codes  of  France  and  Spain,  she  has  adopted  the  liberal  j 

and  equitable  spirit  of  the  Roman  law  in  civil  affairs,  and  the  free  I 
and  just  system  of  tfie  common  law  of  England,  in  criminal  matters. 

The  rights  of  property,  the  modes  of  acquisition,  the  laws  of 
leases,  liens,  servitudes,  privileges,  prescriptions,  marriage,  succes¬ 
sions  and  inheritance,  are  the  same  that  the  emigrant  from  Central  j 
or  Southern  Europe  was  taught  in  his  own  fatherland.  No  other 
State  in  the  Union  offers  the  emigrant  such  advantages  in  this 
respect  as  Louisiana.  In  all  the  other  States  they  have  the  common 
law  of  England,  modified  by  local  changes  to  suit  special  circum¬ 
stances,  and  each  State  differs  from  the  others  in  many  respects  in 
its  laws.  The  consequence  is  that  except  in  Louisiana,  the  emigrant 
!  to  the  United  States  finds  it  difficult  to  familiarize  himself  with  the 
laws,  and  is  often  subjected  to  ruinous  losses.  The  civil  law,  as  in 
Louisiana,  requires  the  vendor  to  warrant  what  he  sells,  while  the 
common  law  of  the  other  Staites  is  the  reverse,  and  requires  the 
purchaser  to  look  to  it  that  what  he  buys  is  sound.  The  laws  of 
Louisiana  have  always  been  more  liberal  than  those  of  any  other 
State  in  the  Union.  We  have  had  no  sumptuary  laws,  no  Sunday 
laws,  no  Maine  liquor,  laws,  no  laws  against  hunting  or  fishing. 
The  theatres,  the  ball  rooms,  the  beer  gardens,  the  coffeehouses,  the 
billiard  saloons  and  the  churches  of  every  sect,  are  all  op§n  and  are 
allowed  equal  privileges  on  Sundays.  During  all  the  time  that 
;  slavery  existed  in  Louisiana,  the  slave  had  ready  means  and  was 
j  provided  by  laws  with  every  facility  for  obtaining  his  freedom,  and 
when  free,  he  was  allowed  not  only  to  be  a  suitor  in  court  and  a 
!  witness  for  or  against  a  white  man,  but  was  allowed  every  right  of  a 
citizen  except  voting,  sitting  on  jury  and  holding  office.  Many  were 
very  wealthy. 

This  enlightened  and  liberal  spirit  of  our  laws  has  always  sprung 
from  the  tolerant  and  generous  character  of  our  people.  There  is  no 
prejudice  against  caste,  and  no  antipathy  to  foreigners  or  strangers; 
for  having  the  representatives  of  so  many  trades  and  states  and 
nationalities  among  us,  all  join  in  welcoming  the  honest  and 
worthy  immigrant,  let  him  belong  to  what  calling  or  country  he  may. 
This  liberal  sentiment  of  our  people  has  impressed  itself  upon  all 
the  institutions  of  the  State,  and  hence  there  are  in  Louisiana  more 
charitable  and  benevolent  institutions  supported  at  public  expense 
than  can  be  found  in  any  other  part  of  the  world  in  proportion  to 
the  population.  Among  these  are  the  Charity  Hospital  at  New 
Orleans,  capable  of  accommodating  two  thousand  patients.  Two 
Insane  Asylums,  the  Asylum  where  the  deaf,  dumb  and  blind  are 


14 


INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


educated  and  cared  for,  besides  innumerable  Orphan  Asylums,  j 
Widows’  Houses  and  Charitable  Associations.  Notwithstanding  the  j 
I  number  of  charitable  institutions  and  the  liberality  with  which  they 
have  always  been  maintained  and  new  ones  established  as  need  ! 
required,  yet  the  actual  paupers  who  are  supported  at  public  j 
expense  arc  fewer  than  perhaps  in  any  other  community  in  the  world,  I 
as  in  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty  out  of  a  population  of  seven  bun- 
dred  and  eight  thousand  and  two,  there  were  only  one  hundred  and 
fifty-seven  native  and  thirty-seven  foreign  paupers.  Indeed  it  has  | 
alwaj^s  been  so  easy  to  obtain  steady  and  profitable  employment  in  :  ■ 
this  State  that  there  has  been  no  occasion  or  excuse  for  pauperism,  | 
as  wages  have  been  and  are  higher  in  Louisiana  than  in  any  other  ; 
State  except  Oregon.  The  laws  exempting  property  from  seizure 
and  sale  for  debt  are  as  liberal  in  Louisiana  as  in  any  other  State, 
as  will  be  seen  by  the  following  list  of  property  which  is  secured  by 
law  to  the  debtor  against  all  executions  sued  out  by  any  creditor,  so  i 
that  neither  the  debtor  who  owns  property  nor  his  family  can  be 
deprived  of  a  home  and  the  means  of  support,  by  improvidence  or  I 
misfortune: 

AN  ACT  to  exempt  from  seizure  and  sale  a  Homestead  and  other  property. 

Section  1.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Bepresenta- 
tives  of  the  State  of  Louisiana,  in  General  Assembly  convened,  That 
in  addition  to  the  property  and  effects  now  exempt  from  seizure  and 
sale  under  execution,  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  ground  and 
the  buildings  and  improvements,  occupied  as  the  residence  and  bona 
fide  owned  by  the  debtor,  having  a  family,  or  mother  or  father,  or 
person  or  persons,  dependent  on  him  for  support;  also,  one  work  j 
horse,  one  wagon  or  cart,  one  yoke  of  oxen,  two  cows  and  calves, 
twenty-five  head  of  hogs,  or  one  thousand  flitch  of  bacon  or  equiva¬ 
lent  in  pork;  and  if  a  farmer,  the  necessary  corn  and  fodder  for  the 
current  year,  Provided,  That  the  property  herein  declared  to  be 
exempt  from  seizure  and  sale  does  not  exceed  in  value  two  thousand 
dollars,  and  in  case  of  excess,  any  sale  thereof  under  execution 
shall  be  taken  from  the  lot  of  ground  and  buildings  herein  men¬ 
tioned,  and  not  from  the  other  property  herein  mentioned  as  being 
j  exempt  from  seizure  and  sale;  And  provided  further,  That  no  debtor 
shall  be  entitled  to  the  exemption  provided  for  in  this  section,  whose 
wife  shall  own  in  her  own  right  and  be  in  the  actual  enjoyment  of 
property  worth  more  than  one  thousand  dollars. 

Sec.  2.  Be  it  further  enacted,  etc.,  That  no  property  shall,  by 
virtue  of  this  act,  be  exempt  from  sale  for  non-payment  of  taxes  or 
assessments  levied  pursuant  to  law,  nor  for  debt  contracted  for  the 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  15 


|  purchase  price  of  said  property,  nor  for  money  due  for  rents  bearing  j 
a  privilege  upon  said  property  under  existing  laws — Act  of  Decem- 
j  ber  22,  1865 — Nor  can  the  “  sheriff  seize  the  linen  and  clothes 
belonging  to  the  debtor  and  his  family,  nor  his  bed,  nor  his  arms  and 
!  military  accoutrements,  nor  the  tools  and  instruments  necessary  for  | 
the  exercise  of  his  trade  or  profession  by  which  be  gains  a  living.” 
And  the  courts  give  this  the  widest  construction  in  favor  of  the 
debtor.  Unnaturalized  foreigners  have  always  been  allowed  under 
ouj:  laws  the  right  to  acquire,  hold,  enjoy  and  transfer  real  estate 
i  during  life,  and  with  no  more  restrictions  than  were  imposed  on 
j  native  citizens.  But  few  States  in  the  Union  have  such  laws. 

HEALTH,  CLIMATE,  AND  LONGEVITY. 

i 

Louisiana  lies  between  the  thirty-third  and  twenty-ninth  degrees 
of  north  latitude,  and  owing  to  its  semi-peninsular  projection  into 
the  warm  waters  of  the  Gulf,  and  to  the  vast  area  covered  by  the 
innumerable  bayous,  rivers,  streams  and  lakes  within  her  limits, 

|  the  climate  is  much  softer  than  in  corresponding  latitudes  in  the  i 
interior  of  the  country,  or  even  in  that  portion  of  Texas  which  lies 
S  further  south. 

The  balmy  breezes  of  the  Gulf  moderate  the  heat  of  summer,  and  the 
lakes  and  river  system  of  the  interior,  which  cool  slowly,  radiate  suf- 
I  ficient  heat  to  temper  the  air  during  the  few  cool  days  of  winter. 

'  As  a  consequence,  we  have  never  the  high  degrees  of  heat  which 
occur  in  Boston,  New  York,  and  the  whole  North  and  West. 

The  thermometer  at  New  Orleans  never  rises  above  96J  degrees 
Farhenheit,  and  seldom  falls  below  freezing  point.  The  cold  usually 
comes  in  blasts  and  gusts,  which  pass  off  quickly,  lasting  but  two  or 
three  days.  Snow  occurs  not  oftener  than  once  in  twelve  years. 
The  heat  of  the  North  is  far  more  intense;  while  it  lasts,  the  thermo¬ 
meter  frequently  ranges  above  100  degrees,  and  sun-stroke  or  coup 
de  soleil  is  far  more  common  all  over  the  North  than  here.  During 
the  summer  of  1866  there  were  in  New  York  city  two  hundred  and 
sixty  cases  of  sunstroke,  while  in  all  of  Louisiana  there  were  only 
eighteen  cases.  Outside  of  New  Orleans  the  health  of  the  State  is 
beyond  all  comparison  better  than  that  of  any  other  State  in  the 
Union.  New  Orleans,  and  the  smaller  towns  and  cities  around  it, 
contain  about  one-half  of  the  total  population  of  the  State. 

New  Orleans  has  been  visited  by  the  yellow  fever  during  the  past 
summer  for  the  first  time  in  nine  years.  Owing  to  the  large  number 
of  unacclimated  persons,  the  disease  was  unusually  active  having,  it 
is  estimated,  attacked  over  sixty  thousand  persons  in  the  city.  Of 
these,  three  thousand  and  ninety-six  died,  being  about  five  per  cent. 


16 


INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


This  shows  how  very  manageable  the  disease  was;  and  the  deaths 


were  increased  by  the  destitution  of  many  and  want  of  attention. 

|  The  experience  of  the  war,  during  which  a  strict  quarantine  was 
|  kept  up,  demonstrates  that  the  yellow  fever  may  be  kept  out  of  New 
I  Orleans,  and  hereafter  it  will  be  done. 

Beyond  an  occasional  visitation  from  yellow  fever,  New  Orleans  is 


the  healthiest  city  on  the  continent.  In  the  statistics  of  mortality 
that  city  is  charged  with  a  very  large  number  of  deaths  which 


j  occur  among  exhausted  invalids  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States, 
j  who  seek  the  soft  and  genial  climate  in  order  to  regain  their  health, 

;  |  or,  at  least,  to  prolong  their  lives  beneath  the  Southern  skies.  She 
j  has  many  advantages  for  invalids  which  cannot  be  found  elsewhere 
on  the  continent,  and  vast  numbers  resort  here. 

With  the  actual  resident  population  the  proportion  of  deaths  is 
j  very  small.  We  are  almost  entirely  free  from  those  terrible  diseases 
!  which  originate  in  cold  climates — such  as  consumption,  pneumonia, 
bronchitis,  rheumatism,  and  many  others  so  prevalent  at  the  North 
and  Northwest.  And  we  have  but  few  of  those  fatal  fevers  so  com¬ 
mon  further  North — such  as  typhus,  typhoid,  congestive,  and  inter¬ 
mittent.  The  fevers  here  are  usually  light  and  yield  readily  to 
simple  remedies.  It  is  seldom  necessary  in  the  country  to  call  in  a 
physician  in  their  treatment.  The  State  is  remarkable  for  the  lon¬ 
gevity  of  its  inhabitants. 

Though  New  Orleans  has  in  the  last  seven  years  nearly  doubled 
her  population,  and  over  four  years  of  civil  war  ensued  in  that  time; 
and  the  effects  of  such  wars  are  very  fatal  to  the  aged,  yet  the  mor¬ 
tuary  reports  of  the  Board  of  Health  for  1866-61  show  that  about  one 
|  person  a  month,  or  twelve  to  fourteen  a  year,  die  over  a  hundred 
years  of  age  ;  and  twenty-five  to  thirty  a  year  between  eighty  and 
ninety.  As  persons  of  such  great  age  rarely  migrate,  it  is  probable 
that  these  persons  belonged  to  the  old  population  before  the  war. 
In  the  country  the  longevity  is  still  greater,  and  in  single  neighbor¬ 
hoods,  not  including  villages,  six  or  eight  individuals  may  be  pointed 
out  as  more  than  one  hundred  years  of  age.  In  many  neighbor¬ 
hoods  physicians  are  unknown.  The  large  families  of  healthy  chil¬ 
dren  everywhere  to  be  seen,  and  the  handsome  and  robust  appear- 
;  ance  of  the  people  in  the  rural  regions  attest  the  healthfulness  of 


the  State  ;  and  the  remarkable  vigor,  endurance,  and  courage  exliib- 


j  ited  by  the  Louisiana  soldiers,  on  both  sides,  during  the  recent  civil 
I  war,  showed  the  hardy  constitutions  of  the  persons  raised  in  this 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  It 


been  famous  as  a  superior  stock  country.  The  rich  and  perpetual 
grasses  on  the  prairies  in  the  western  part  of  the  State  furnish  the 
best  pasturage  in  America,  and  the  business  of  cattle  raising  is  car¬ 
ried  on  upon  a  larger  scale  there  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  United 
States.  Single  vacheries  branded  every  year,  previous  to  the  war, 
over  five  thousand  head  of  calves.  Many  large  herds  of  cattle  are 
driven  from  Texas  and  wintered  in  these  ever  verdant  pastures  for 
the  New  Orleans  market.  Cattle  for  beef  may  be  bought  upon  these 
prairies  and  in  Texas  at  from  ten  to  fifteen  dollars  a  head,  and  when 
thoroughly  fattened  bring,  in  New  Orleans,  fifty  to  sixty  dollars.  The 
ease  with  which  hay,  grain,  turnips,  carrots,  and,  above  all,  sweet 
potatoes,  may  be  raised,  makes  the  business  of  fattening  cattle  for 
market  one  of  the  most  profitable  employments. 

Horse  raising  has  always  been  profitable  here.  The  principal 
breed  of  horses,  known  as  the  Creole  pony,  is  a  descendant  of  the 
famous  Spanish  barbs,  and  is  capable  of  undergoing  the  most  won¬ 
derful  fatigue.  They  gallop  forty,  fifty,  and  even  sixty  miles  in  a 
few  hours,  and  with  as  little  fatigue  as  would  be  incurred  by  an 
ordinary  horse  in  a  ten  mile  drive. 

Other  breeds  of  horses  and  mules  are  raised  here,  with  more  ease 
than  in  the  Middle  States  or  the  North.  Some  of  the  finest  racers, 
as  Lecompte,  were  bred  in  Louisiana. 

Goats  and  sheep  increase  with  astonishing  rapidity  here,  owing  to 
the  mildness  of  the  climate  and  the  variety  and  perpetual  verdure  of 
our  grasses.  The  mutton  of  Louisiana  is  pronounced  by  epicures  as 
equal  to  the  best  British  mutton.  Sheep  are  subject  to  few  diseases 
here,  as  most  of  their  maladies  come  from  cold.  The  best  and  finest 
wool  ever  grown  in  America  was  raised  in  Mississippi,  one  of  the 
States  adjoining  Louisiana. 

This  State  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  raising  of  swine,  and  this 
business  is  now  attracting  much  attention.  Heretofore  the  great 
mass  of  our  people  and  planters  were  dependent  on  the  Northwest 
for  pork. 

FORESTS  AND  THE  LUMBER  TRADE. 

All  the  upland  and  alluvial  region,  comprising  three-fourths  of  the 
State,  is  covered  with  the  finest  forests  in  the  United  States,  and  as 
the  State  is  cut  up  in  every  direction  by  navigable  waters,  the  forests 
of  pine,  cypress,  live  oak,  white  oak,  post  oak,  gum,  ash,  and  other 
valuable  timber  trees,  furnish  employment  to  hundreds  of  mills 
and  thousands  of  workmen  in  getting  out  lumber  for  home  and 
foreign  trade ;  and  the  business  is  rapidly  increasing,  and  will 
i  furnish  lucrative  employment  to  thousands  of  emigrants.  The  fol- 
3 


18  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


lowing  list  of  native  trees  will  show  the  variety  and  value  of  the 
forests  here: 


Live  Oak, 

White  Oak, 

Post  Oak, 

Red  Oak, 

;  Black  Oak, 

|  Scarlet  Oak, 
j  Brown  Oak, 

Turkey  Oak, 

Bear  Oak, 

Swamp  Oak, 

Water  Oak, 

Willow  Oak, 
Chincapin  Oak, 
Overcup  Oak, 
Spanish  Oak, 

Myrtle  Oak, 

Dentata  Oak, 

Black  Jack  Oak, 
Yellow  Pine, 

Pitch  Pine, 

Wild  China, 

Water  Elm, 

Red  Elm, 

Slippery  Elm, 

Linn,  or  Bass, 
Catalpa, 

Wild  Peach, 

Red  Ash, 

White  Ash, 

WTater  Ash, 

Green  Ash, 

Honey  Locust,  three 
varieties, 

Black  Locust, 

Acacia  Locust. 


Short  Leafed  Pine, 
Loblolly  Pine, 

Red  Cypress, 

White  Cypress, 

Black  Gum, 

Sweet  Gum, 

Tupelo  Gum, 

Red  Willow, 

White  Willow, 

Black  Willow, 

Shell  Bark  Hickory, 
Black  Hickory, 

Pig  Nut  Hickory, 
Water  Hickory, 
Pecan,  six  varieties, 
Black  Walnut, 

Cotton  Wood, 

Balm  of  Gilead, 
Yellow  Poplar, 

Beech, 

Papaw, 

Buckthorn, 

Prickly  Ash,  two  va¬ 
rieties, 

Sumach  Ash,  two  va¬ 
ries, 

Water  Birch, 

White  Mulberry, 

Red  Mulberry, 

Wild  Cherry, 

Wild  Plum, 
Dogwood,  two  species 
Redbud, 

Holly, 

Barberry. 


Sugar  Maple, 

Silver  Maple, 

Swamp  Maple, 

Alder,  two  species, 

Box  Elder, 

Box  Wood, 

Sycamore, 

Red  Haw, 

May  Haw, 

Apple  Haw, 

Sugar  Haw, 

Parsley  Leafed  Haw, 
Bird  Haw, 

Black  Haw, 

Red  Sassafras  (Gombo), 
White  Sassafras, 

Red  Bay, 

Sweet  Bay, 

Magnolia  Grandiflora, 
Magnolia  Glanca, 

Wild  Coffee, 

Crab  Apple,  two  varie¬ 
ties, 

Persimmon,  two  spe¬ 
cies, 

Wild  Sloe, 

Hackberry, 

Yellow  Wood, 

Sorrel  Tree, 

Iron  Wood, 

Yaupon, 

Wax  Myrtle, 
Hornbeam, 

Buckeye. 


LAKES,  RIVERS  AND  BAYOUS. 

The  Mississippi  river  proper  rises  and  terminates  in  regions  of 
innumerable  lakes.  Louisiana  has  fully  one  thousand  lakes  large 
and  small  within  its  borders.  Some  of  these 'are  of  great  size,  as 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA. 


19 


Pontchartrain,  Maurepas  and  Borgne,  which  lie  north  and  east  of 
New  Orleans,  and  Calcasieu,  Sabine  and  Grand  lakes  to  the  west. 
The  principal  lakes  are 


Pontchartrain, 

Catahoula, 

Salvador, 

Maurepas, 

Turkey  Creek, 

Caddo, 

Borgne, 

Mermentau, 

Lake  St.  Joseph, 

Grand, 

Providence, 

Pearl, 

Chicot, 

Ronde, 

Bodeau, 

N  atchez, 

Yerret, 

Lake  Tasse, 

Sabine, 

Des  Allemands, 

Lake  Fausse  Pointe, 

Calcasieu, 

Bisteneau, 

Lake  Simmonette, 

Lake  Arthur, 

Black, 

Lake  Plauche, 

Lake  Charles, 

Soda. 

Spanish  Lake. 

Palourde. 

Many  of  these  lakes  are  clear  and  beautiful,  and  all  are  alive 
with  the  finest  fish.  Lake  Tasse  and  perhaps  some  others  have, 
over  a  large  portion  of  them,  a  floating  sod  or  prairie,  a  foot  or  more 
in  thickness,  which  is  sufficiently  buoyant  to  bear  the  weight  of 
whole  herds  of  cattle,  and  yet  upon  cutting  a  hole  through  the  turf, 
the  water  is  found  beneath,  and  fish  are  caught  through  the  holes. 
Some  of  these  lakes  are  inclosed  by  hills  covered  with  oaks  and  pines ; 
others  are  in  high  open  prairie  without  a  tree,  while  many  are  in  the 
alluvial  region,  and  are  bordered  by  dense  forests  of  live  oak  and 
cypress,  from  which  depend  a  drapery  of  long  gray  moss,  giving  a 
peculiar  picturesqueness  to  the  scene.  Many  of  the  lakes  are  navi¬ 
gable  and  connect  with  the  extensive  system  of  inland  water  com¬ 
munication  to  be  found  in  Louisiana.  The  rivers  and  bayous  of 
Louisiana  are  far  more  more  numerous  than  in  any  other  portion  of 
America.  It  is  estimated  that  there  are  more  than  twenty  thousand 
miles  of  navigable  water  in  the  State,  in  addition  to  the  extensive 
coast  navigation. 

The  whole  State,  but  more  especially^ the  alluvial  regions  and 
broad  marshes  around  the  coast,  exhibits  a  vast  and  intricate  system 
of  lakes,  rivers,  bayous  and  deep  natural  canals  which,  particularly 
in  the  lower  portions  of  the  State,  so  frequently  communicate  with 
or  intersect  each  other,  that  boats  may  pass  through  the  State  in 
almost  any  direction.  These  navigable  waters  afford  the  most 
wonderful  facilities  for  transportation.  The  extensive  marsh  border¬ 
ing  the  whole  coast  has  an  independent  system  of  bayous  and 
streams,  which  take  their  rise  in  the  marsh,  and  form  a  complete 
cobweb  of  broad  canals,  deep  enough  to  float  an  ironclad.  Many 
of  these  marsh  bayous  are  nameless  as  yet,  and  though  few  of  them 


20 


INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


are  more  than  forty  miles  in  length,  they  are  so  numerous  as  to  make 
up  a  large  aggregate  in  the  sum  of  navigable  streams. 

The  principal  streams  are  as  follows: 

NAMES  OF  RIVERS  AND  BAYOUS. 


Mississippi, 

Red  River, 
Atchafalaya, 

Ouachita, 

Black, 

Tensas, 

Little  River, 

False  River, 

Black  Lake  River, 
Darbonne, 

Iberville, 

Wanska  Bayou, 
Pigeon  Bayou, 

Gross  Tete  Bayou, 
Maringonna  Bayou, 
Terrebonne  Bayou, 
Grand  Caillou  Bayou, 
Petit  Caillou  Bayou, 
Be  Large  Bayou, 
Barataria  Bayou, 

Des  Allemande  Bayou. 


Grand  River, 

Belle  River, 

Old  River, 

Cane  River, 

Sabine  River, 
Calcasieu  River, 
Mermentau  River, 
Vermillion  River, 
Dugdemona  River, 
Dorchite  River, 
Amite  River, 

Bayou  De  Glaise, 
Bayou  Rouge,  ' 
Bayou  Alabama, 
Bayou  Choctaw, 
Bayou  Bartholomew, 
Bayou  Macon, 

Bayou  Boeuf,  upper, 


Oomite  River, 

Blind  River, 

Tickfaw  River, 
Tangipahoa  River, 
Notalbany  River, 
Tchefuncta  River, 
Bogue  Cliitto  River, 
Pearl  River, 

East  Pearl, 

West  Pearl, 

Sorrel  Bayou, 

Bayou  Loggy, 

Bayou  Couchatta  Chute, 
Bayou  Pierre, 

Bayou  Lone, 

Bayou  Teche, 

Bayou  Boeuf,  lower, 
Bayou  Black, 

Bayou  Penchant, 


Bayou  Boeuf,  middle, 

Bayou  Crocodile,  lower  Bayou  Lafourche, 
Bayou  Cortableau.  Bayou  Plaquemine. 


The  Mississippi  is,  of  course,  the  largest  of  these  rivers;  it  flows 
along  the  eastern  line  of  Louisiana,  and  forms  the  boundary  between 
it  and  the  State  of  Mississippi  for  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles, 
when  it  enters  the  State  of  Louisiana,  passing  wholly  within  the 
borders  of  the  State  for  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  more,  thus 
giving  eight  hundred  miles  of  navigation  in  this  State.  Next  in 
importance  is  Red  river,  which  enters  the  State  at  its  northwest  corner 
and  flows  for  more  than  six  hundred  miles  in  Louisiana.  Then  come 
the  Atchafalaya  and  the  Ouachita,  flowing,  almost  as  one  stream, 
nearly  centrally  through  the  State,  from  north  to  south,  for  seven 
hundred  miles.  The  Sabine  forms  the  western  boundary,  and  is  navi¬ 
gable  some  six  hundred  miles.  The  Pearl  river  forms  the  eastern 
boundary,  and  is  navigable  to  Jackson,  in  Mississippi.  There  are 
twenty  more  rivers  and  bayous,  which  flow  by  independent  mouths 
into  the  Gulf,  each  navigable  far  into  the  interior  for  steamers  and 
sailing  vessels,  aud  each  having  its  own  affluents  and  tributaries, 
most  of  which  are  navigable  also.  The  map  of  the  world  will  be 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  21 

searched  in  vain  to  find  any  other  country  that  can  give  the  emi¬ 
grant  seeking  a  home  such  a  combination  of  advantages  as  can  be  j 
secured  here.  With  its  vast  and  varied  forests,  with  a  soil  superior  I 
in  retentive  fertility  to  any  in  the  world;  with  a  climate  so  genial  j 
and  equal  in  its  seasons  that  every  product  of  the  temperate,  and 
nearly  every  product  of  the  torrid  zone  may  be  raised  with  ease  in 
the  open  air,  and  remarkable  for  its  salubrity  and  the  great  longevity 
of  its  inhabitants;  with  the  cheapest  transportation  at  every  man’s 
door,  to  bear  his  products  and  manufactures  to  the  best  market  of 
the  world;  protected  by  free,  liberal,  and  just  laws,  under  a  powerful 
government,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  highest  civilization,  with  all  its 
progressive  machinery  and  appliances  for  material,  moral,  social  and 
educational  advancement.  Louisiana  offers  to  the  settler  unsurpassed 
facilities  for  rapidly  becoming  prosperous  and  comparatively  inde¬ 
pendent. 

RAILROADS. 

As  Louisiana  has  no  mountains,  and  the  greater  part  is  level  or 
only  slightly  rolling,  the  face  of  the  country  presents  the  finest  field 
for  building  cheap  railroads ;  but  owing  to  the  magnificent  system  of 
water  communication'which  traverses  every  portion  of  the  State,  the 
want  of  railroads  has  not  been  so  great  here  as  in  other  interior 
States.  We  had,  however,  made  much  progress  in  railroad  making 
in  the  last  few  years  previous  to  the  war,  and  now  not  only  has  the 
destruction  of  the  tracks,  depots,  rolling  stock,  etc.,  during  the 
war,  been  repaired,  but  the  old  roads  are  preparing  for  extension  and 
new  connections,  and  new  companies  have  organized  and  most  im¬ 
portant  lines  of  great  length  are  being  put  under  contract.  The 
following  are  the  roads  in  actual  operation: 

Length  Miles. 


New  Orleans,  Milneburg  and  Pontchartrain .  6 

New  Orleans  and  Carrollton . ,_/8 

Baton  Rouge  and  Grosse  Tete .  It 

Clinton  and  Port  Hudson .  22 

West  Feliciana  .  26 

Mexican  Gulf .  21 

Vicksburg  and  Shreveport . 54 

New  Orleans,  Opelousas  and  Great  Western .  80 

New  Orleans,  Jackson  and  Great  Northern . 


In  addition  to  these  are  the  New  Orleans,  Mobile  and  Chattanooga; 
New  Iberia  and  Orange;  Central  Stem  Pacific;  New  Orleans  and 
Mazatlan — all  of  which  are  projected,  and  upon  some  of  which  the 
work  has  been  commenced.  These  roads  will  all  be  built,  as  they 
are  all  necessities  at  the  present  time. 


-  -  —  -  -  - 

22 

INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 

1 

SOIL  AND  PRODUCTIONS. 


The  State  of  Louisiana  contains  upland,  alluvial,  prairie,  and  ! 
marsh.  About  one-half  is  level  or  rolling  upland,  with  here  and 
there  hills,  never  over  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  height;  one-fourth 
is  alluvium  deposited  by  the  Mississippi,  the  Red  and  Ouachita  rivers 
and  their  offshoots;  one-eighth  is  prairie,  and  one-eighth  seamarsh. 
Nearly  every  variety  of  soil  may  be  found  in  these  several  divisions,  j 
The  uplands  have  a  sandy  soil,  and  are  covered  principally  with 
pine,  but  intermixed  with  a  great  variety  of  other  timber.  In  this 
region  the  lands  are  cheap,  and  afford  the  finest  localities  for  villages  j 
and  manufacturing  establishments  of  all  kinds.  Here  is  fine  water¬ 
power,  with  clear,  beautiful  springs  and  streams.  Much  of  this 
region  is  government  land,  and  will  soon  be  brought  within  the  pro- 
visons  of  the  homestead  act.  The  soil,  though  naturally  fertile, 
requires  care  and  manure  to  keep  up  its  productiveness.  Much 
of  the  alluvial  portion  of  the  State  is  at  present  liable  to  overflow 
from  the  annual  floods  of  the  Mississippi,  but  measures  are  in  progress 
to  rebuild  the  levees  and  protect  these,  the  most  valuable  lands  in 
the  world.  Here  are  the  great  sugar  and  cotton  plantations,  but 
the  soil  is  so  rich  and  the  climate  so  genial  that  every  product  may 
be  grown  on  them.  The  prairies  are  gently  rolling,  or  perfectly 
level,  and  the  soil  is  nearly  as  rich  as  the  alluvial  soil,  sometimes 
dark  organic  mold,  and  in  other  places  largely  mixed  with  sand. 
The  marshes,  though  easy  of  reclamation,  and  possessing  an  inex¬ 
haustible  vegetable  mold,  have  seldom  been  brought  into  cultivation, 
but  are  now  attracting  much  attention  as  rice  lands  No  lands  could 
be  more  productive.  In  all  the  alluvial,  prairie  and  marsh  lands,  the 
sugarcane  grows  with  great  vigor,  and  near  the  seacoast  frequently 
flowers  and  seeds,  as  it  has  done  the  past  season.  It  has  been  pushed 
into  the  northern  parishes  and  succeeds  well. 

Louisiana,  before  the  war,  produced  four  hundred  and  sixty  thou¬ 
sand  hogsheads  of  sugar,  and  the  business  is  again  rapidly  reviving. 
Cotton  grows  all  over  the  State,  and  was  formerly  the  chief  staple. 
Tobacco  of  the  finest  varieties  and  bringing  the  highest  market  price, 
grows  in  every  portion  of  the  State  and  on  every  kind  of  soil. 
Natchitoches  snuff  and  perique  tobacco  are  famous.  Indian  corn  or 
maize  has  heretofore  been  the  chief  grain  crop,  and  furnished  the 
principal  item  of  food  for  men  and  stock.  Wheat,  rye,  oats,  barley, 
buckwheat,  have  all  been  raised,  and  are  found  to  do  far  better  than 
in  the  more  northern  States,  ripening  earlier,  yielding  more  to  the 
acre,  and  producing  a  better  and  heavier  grain.  Several  of  the  j 
native  grasses  make  an  excellent  hay,  but  nearly  all  of  the  cultivated  i 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  23  j  j 

- |  | 

varieties  have  been  used  and  yield  largely,  such  as  millet,  timothy, 
herds  grass,  clover,  and  others.  The  pastures  are  always  green  with 
a  great  variety  of  grasses,  such  as  white  clover,  Bermuda,  smut- 
grass,  crabgrass,  carpetgrass,  etc.  An  endless  list  of  garden  vegeta¬ 
bles  might  be  made  out.  No  failures  are  known  to  have  occurred  in 
the  effort  to  acclimate  any  variety  here.  All  the  most  delicate 
vegetables  are  produced  here  in  the  open  air,  and  the  garden  is 
kept  up  every  month  in  the  year  and  furnishes  much  of  the 
food  for  every  family.  Twenty  or  thirty  varieties  of  the  pea  and 
bean  are  cultivated  and  yield  immense  crops.  All  the  root  crops — 
turnips,  parsnips,  carrots,  beets,  onions,  garlic,  leeks,  ground  arti¬ 
chokes,  kohlrabbi,  peanuts  or  pinders,  Irish  potatoes  and  sweet 
potatoes,  with  melons,  pumpkins,  kershaws,  and  squashes — are  con¬ 
stantly  raised  and  give  almost  incredible  returns  to  the  farmer.  Rice 
is  one  of  the  principal  crops,  and  may  be  raised  on  every  acre  in  the 
State,  with  or  without  overflow.  It  is  one  of  the  best  forage  crops 
that  can  be  raised.  Hemp,  flax,  okra,  and  a  new  plant,  the  ramie,  are 
raised  and  flourish  well  as  textile  crops.  Many  oil  plants  are  grown, 
including  the  olive  and  palma  christi  or  castor  plant,  which  is  indigen¬ 
ous,  and  a  native  wax  plant — the  wax  myrtle — is  found  in  great 
abundance,  from  which  a  hand  may  gather  from  six  to  ten  pounds  of 
wax  a  day.  The  wax  makes  beautiful  candles,  equal  to  sperm. 
Indeed,  there  is  scarcely  a  conceivable  product  of  any  commercial 
value  that  may  not  be  grown  in  Louisiana,  the  soil  is  of  such  ex¬ 
haustless  fertility  and  the  seasons  are  long  enough  to  mature  any 
crop. 

GRAPES  AND  WINE. 

Every  portion  of  the  State,  from  the  pine  hills  to  the  seashore,  is 
well  adapted  to  the  vine.  There  are  some  ten  or  twelve  indigenous 
varieties  of  grapes,  all  of  which  have  been  tested  as  wine  grapes, 
and  some  were  proved  to  be  excellent,  and  one  having  been  carried 
from  Red  river  to  France  has  proved  one  of  the  best  claret  grapes 
now  cultivated  in  Europe.  The  whole  Northern  portion  of  the 
State  is  a  vast  natural  vineyard.  The  wild  vines  frequently  cover 
the  ground  for  miles,  and  to  the  number  sometimes  of  two  hundred 
to  the  acre.  This  is  in  the  high,  sandy  uplands,  while  in  the  low, 
alluvial  lands  other  varieties  climb  the  tallest  trees  and  festoon  the 
forest.  The  stems  of  some  of  these  varieties  often  measure  six  to 
eight  inches  in  diameter.  Nature  has  indicated  to  man  that  the 
vine  here  should  be  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  attention.  Many 
vineyards  exist  where  all  the  cultivated  varieties  are  grown,  and 
these  show  that  the  soil  and  climate  are  admirably  adapted  to  wine 


24 


INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


making.  The  scuppernong  has  yielded  fifteen  hundred  gallons  to 
the  acre.  Even  down  on  the  Gulf  coast  failures  do  not  occur  once  in 
twenty  years  with  prudent  cultivation. 

FRUITS  AND  PLANTS. 

As  the  climate  of  this  State  is  soft,  regular,  and  open,  and  as 
there  is  nearly  every  variety  of  soil  to  be  found  here,  few  countries 
of  the  world  can  surpass  it  in  the  richness  and  variety  of  her  fruits. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  strictly  tropical  plants,  every  kind 
known  to  the  horticulturist  and  pomologist  is  found  here  in  unusual 
perfection  and  lusciousness.  Grapes,  muscadines,  currants,  goose¬ 
berries,  whortleberries,  blackberries,  dewberries,  raspberries,  straw¬ 
berries,  bear  berries,  white  mulberries,  red  mulberries,  raccoon  berries, 
Spanish  berries,  turkey  berries,  elder  berries,  rattan  berries,  winter 
berries,  cranberries,  maypops,  love  apples,  mayapples,  ground  ap¬ 
ples,  crabapples,  black  haws,  seven  varieties  of  cratoegas,  among 
them  the  beautiful  and  delicious  mayhaw,  persimmons,  papaws, 
walnuts,  hickory  nuts,  pig  nuts,  pecans,  chinquepins,  water  chinque- 
pins,  or  ninocks,  wild  gherkins,  sloes,  several  varieties  of  wild 
plums,  and  many  edible  herbs,  roots  and  acorns  are  indigenous  to 
the  soil  and  are  found  in  great  profusion,  as  everything  grows  so 
luxuriantly  under  these  favoring  skies.  The  tall  and  feathery  date- 
palm  flourishes  in  and  around  New  Orleans  and  bears  perfect  fruit. 
The  olive  may  be  seen  here  and  there,  and  has  been  cultivated  for  its 
oil  with  success  ;  it  fruits  well.  The  pineapple  has  been  raised  in 
the  open  air,  while  the  most  luscious  bananas  are  now  to  be  found 
around  every  dwelling.  In  the  lower  part  of  the  State  the  jujube, 
the  almond,  the  guava,  and  the  pomegranate  are  produced  in 
many  gardens  and  may  be  raised  all  over  the  State.  Lemons,  cit¬ 
rons,  and  oranges  grow  in  the  warmer  parishes.  Indeed,  oranges 
are  cultivated  in  nearly  one-half  of  Louisiana,  and  are  far  superior 
in  flavor,  size,  and  appearance  to  the  West  India  oranges.  No  crop 
pays  so  well  as  the  orange  crop,  and  as  we  have  all  the  States 
North  and  West  of  us  as  a  market,  the  culture  is  extending  very  rap¬ 
idly.  The  orange  bears  in  from  five  to  seven  years  from  the  seed, 
and  when  full  grown  will  average  one  thousand  oranges  to  the  tree. 
Single  trees  have  been  known  to  bear  from  three  thousand  five  hun¬ 
dred  to  five  thousand  oranges  in  one  crop.  The  old  French  popula¬ 
tion  have  long  been  accustomed  to  raise  all  the  best  varieties  of 
French  pears,  and  our  markets  are  now  supplied  every  year  with 
pears  of  unsurpassed  flavor  and  excellence.  Apples,  until  a  few 
years  back,  have  not  been  much  cultivated  ;  now,  however,  our  seed¬ 
lings  are  being  planted  all  over  the  State,  and  nearly  every  variety 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA. 


25 


succeeds.  Summer  and  winter  apples  are  becoming  as  common 
here  as  in  the  more  northern  regions.  Quinces  are  in  every  yard. 
But  Louisiana  may  challenge  the  world  in  peaches.  Surely  no 
country  of  the  world  can  produce  finer.  They  rarely  fail  here,  and 
usually  yield  enormous  crops.  Native  peaches  all  seem  to  have  a 
rich,  luscious,  melting  juiciness  which  is  peculiar  to  this  latitude. 
Ihe  sun  and  the  fertile  soil  bring  out  all  the  saccharine  properties  of 
the  fruit.  The  dewberries  >and  the  blackberries  attain  a  size  and 
sweetness  here  which  cannot  be  found  north  of  this.  Strawberries 
may  be  raised  all  the  year  round.  Many  of  our  citizens  are  now,  in 
the  last  days  of  December,  186*7,  eating  fresh  strawberries  ripened 
in  the  open  air  in  their  own  gardens.  Fruit  raising  is  one  of  the 
most  lucrative  employments  to  which  the  immigrant  could  turn.  A 
few  acres  well  attended  to  in  fruits  would  suffice  not  only  to  make 
a  competency,  but  even  a  fortune. 

MINERALS. 

Lignite,  lead,  iron,  salt,  lime,  soda,  gypsum,  copperas,  marl,  petro-  j 
leum  and  marble  are  found  in  this  State.  Iron  is  found  in  great  i 
abundance,  and  convenient  of  access  ;  in  many  parts  of  the  northern  J 
portion  it  is  found  near  limestone,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  heaviest 
forests  of  oak  and  pine  for  charcoal,  while  vast  beds  of  the  best 
lignite  underlie  a  great  portion  of  the  State.  By  the  Siemens  and 
other  improved  processes  lignite  is  found  to  do  as  well  as  any  other 
coal  in  smelting  iron  and  making  steel.  These  iron  fields  are  des¬ 
tined  to  give  employment  to  tens  of  thousands.  Dark  marble  of 
excellent  quality  is  found  in  St.  Landry.  Salt  and  sulphur  springs, 
soda  springs,  and  chalybeate  springs  abound.  Asphalt  is  found  in 
the  upper  and  petroleum  in  the  lower  portion  of  the  State,  and  it  is 
now  conjectured  that  a  vast  deposit  of  petroleum  underlies  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  causing  the  mud  lumps  which  obstruct  the  bar. 

The  salines  of  North  Louisiana  are  very  numerous,  and  yield  a 
beautiful  salt. 

One  of  the  greatest  natural  curiosities  in  America  occurs  in  the  ! 
low  sea  coast  of  Louisiana,  in  the  parish  of  St.  Mary.  An  island, 
as  it  is;  called,  rises  up  out  of  the  vm+m-to  the  height  of  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  eighty-five  feet  We  quote  from  a  recent  visitor: 

“  The  company  has  lately  been  prospecting  with  reference  to 
the  extent  of  the  salt  mine  of  the  island.  By  boring  they  have 
proved  that  the  bed  is  half  a  mile  square,  and  it  may  extend  a  mile 
or  more.  They  have  gone  thirty-eight  feet  into  the  solid  salt,  and 
find  no  signs  of  the  bottom  of  the  stratum.  It  doubtless  extends 
down  hundreds  of  feet  below  the  level  of  the  gulf.  The  surface 


26  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


of  the  salt  is  about  on  a  level  with  the  tide  water,  and  forms  a  level 
plane,  with  a  few  slight  inequalities  on  the  surface.  The  earth 
covers  the  salt  from  eleven  to  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet;  and  if  the 
mine  extends  under  the  hills,  they  may  find  it  covered  in  places  a 
hundred  feet  or  more  in  depth. 

“  On  the  surface  of  the  salt  they  find  a  soil  like  that  of  the  surround¬ 
ing  marshes,  and  above  this,  sedge  grass  or  marsh  grass,  in  a  good 
state  of  preservation.  Above  this  the  soil  appears  to  be  the  wash¬ 
ings  of  the  hillsides  above,  covering  the  mine  to  the  depth  of  from 
eleven  to  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet. 

THE  PIT. 

“We  went  down  into  the  pit  which  the  miners  have  been  working 
latety.  They  have  penetrated  the  salt  but  ten  or  twelve  feet,  and 
the  diameter  of  the  pit  is  not  more  than  fifteen  or  twenty  feet.  In 
one  of  the  old  pits  they  worked  into  the  salt  thirty-eight  feet.  The 
salt  walls  all  around  look  as  if  made  of  glass,  and  we  stood  upon  a 
foundation  of  the  same  solid  material.  It  is  not  improbable  that  this 
ledge  of  salt  extends  a  mile  or  more  in  depth,  and  long  distances  on 
all  sides.” 

It  is  now  ascertained  that  the  salt  extends  over  an  area  of  four 
hundred  acres,  and  has  been  bored  forty-eight  feet  without  passing 
through  it.  The  salt  is  the  purest  that  has  ever  been  discovered, 
having  but  a  fraction  more  than  one  per  cent,  of  foreign  matter. 

STATE  DEBT. 

This  State  has  always  been  remarkable  for  the  fidelity  of  its 
engagements  and  its  excellent  credit  at  home  and  abroad.  Her 
banking  system  was  the  best  in  the  United  States,  and  her  currency 
was  national  previous  to  the  war. 

The  Southern  States  including  Louisiana,  have  only  those  debts 
due  before  the  war  and  the  few  contracted  since;  while  all  of  the 
Northern  and  Northwestern  States  are  burdened  with  enormous  war 
debts,  which,  in  addition  to  the  United  States  taxation,  require  the 
heaviest  taxes  to  be  imposed  on  their  inhabitants.  Louisiana  has  a 
total  indebtedness  of  $6,818,151  principal  and  interest,  calculated  to 
the  1st  of  January,  1868,  and;flfis  is  in  greenbacks.  The  total  value 
of  her  property  according  to  the  census  of  I860  ,  was  $630,944,510. 
This  was  the  assessed  value,  which  is  always  below  the  true  value. 
This  valuation  is  somewhat  reduced  by  the  effects  of  the  war,  but 
while  the  value  of  country  property  has  largely  decreased,  the 
property  in  towns,  and  particularly  in  New  Orleans  and  its  environs, 
has  more  than  doubled  in  value,  so  that  the  present  estimate  will 
not  fall  much  short  of  $500,000,000.  The  revenues  of  the  State 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  27 


during  1866  were  $3,692,731  76,  and  the  expenditures  $1,674,755  31. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  how  easy  it  is  for  Louisiana  to  pay  off  her 
entire  indebtedness  by  ordinary  revenues;  but  she  has  in  addition 
nearly  5,000,000  acres  of  land.  The  emigrant  should  be  careful  to 
avoid  heavy  taxation,  and  there  is  no  comparison  between  the  taxa¬ 
tion  in  Louisiana  and  that  of  .any  State  in  the  Northwest;  our  taxes 
.  are  far  lighter. 

LOUISIANA  AS  COMPARED  WITH  THE  NORTHWEST. 

Heretofore  there  have  been  serious  objections  to  Louisiana  as  a 
home  for  emigrants,  as  compared  with  the  Northwest.  Chiefest  of 
these  was  the  institution  of  slavery.  In  1860,  just  previous  to  the 
war  between  the  North  and  South,  there  were  in  Louisiana  about 
331,726  slaves,  held  and  owned  by  20,670  masters.  By  far  the 
greater  number  of  these  slaves  were  employed  solely  in  agricultural 
pursuits,  yet  a  very  large  proportion  of  them  were  taught  and  em¬ 
ployed  in  the  mechanic  arts.  Nearly  all  the  building  in  the  towns 
and  cities,  and  with  rare  exceptions  all  the  building  upon  the  planta¬ 
tions,  was  done  by  slave  mechanics,  for  the  benefit  of  their  masters. 
There  were  slave  engineers,  blacksmiths,  sugarmakers,  tanners,  shoe¬ 
makers,  brickmasons,  plasterers,  and  distillers.  Few  white  mechan¬ 
ics  could  compete  with  the  wealthy  owners  of  these  slave  mechanics, 
and  the  consequence  was  that  but  few  of  the  former  class  came  to 
Louisiana  and  the  other  Southern  States.  Though  there  were  more 
than  twenty  thousand  slave  owners  in  the  State,  there  were  not 
twelve  thousand  land  owners,  as  the  more  numerous  class  of  slave 
owners  were  settled  in  towns,  villages  and  cities,  and  held  one  or 
more  slaves  simply  as  domestic  servants  or  mechanics.  Out  of 
30,240,000  acres  of  land  in  Louisiana,  these  land  owners  held 
19,650,000,  or  two-thirds  of  all  the  lands  in  the  State,  in  tracts  vary¬ 
ing  from  ten  acres  to  fifty  thousand  acres,  and  there  was  an  enormous 
aggregation  of  slaves  and  lands  in  the  hands  of  a  few  persons.  The 
large  slave  owners  always  sought  out  the  richest  and  best  lands  in  the 
State,  and  bought  immense  areas,  which  they  seldom  sold.  The  emi¬ 
grant  was  forced  into  the  poorer  regions  or  altogether  out  of  the 
State.  The  planters  were  compelled*  to  restrict  their  agriculture  to 
long  crops  of  staple  products,  such  as  sugar  or  cotton,  which  alone 
could  give  continuous,  unremitted  and  profitable  employment  to 
their  slaves  throughout  the  whole  year,  and  other  crops  were 
neglected.  With  the  abolition  of  slavery,  all  this  has  passed  away,  | 
and  now  but  few  negro  mechanics  are  to  be  seen,  and  they  cannot 
compete  with  the  better  educated  and  more  thrifty  white  mechanic. 

A  consequence  of  slavery  was  the  gradual  absorption  by  the  large 


28 


INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


s  slave  owners  of  all  the  best  lands,  and  their  refusal  to  sell  was 
another  objection  to  Louisiana.  There  is  no  longer  any  motive  to 
hold  large  bodies  of  idle  lands,  for  without  labor  they  are  worse 
than  worthless;  the  tax  upon  such  possessions  is  rapidly  impoverish¬ 
ing  their  owners.  The  failure  of  the  cotton  crop  under  freed  labor  is  j 
another  powerful  motive  to  sell.  The  policy  of  every  one  now  is  to 
hold  no  more  land  than  he  is  able  to  cultivate,  hence  all  the  large  j 
bodies  of  land  in  the  State  are  in  the  market,  in  lots  and  prices  to 
suit  purchasers.  The  richest  and  most  fruitful  lands  in  the  world, 
and  convenient  to  all  the  markets  of  the  earth,  may  now  be  had  at  I 
less  than  one-tenth  of  their  value  in  1860.  Highly  improved  planta¬ 
tions  of  two  thousand  to  four  thousand  acres,  lying  on  the  Mississippi, 
and  within  a  half  day’s  travel  of  New  Orleans,  may  be  had  at  less 
than  ten  dollars  an  acre,  including  buildings  and  valuable  machinery. 

A  third  objection  which  has  heretofore  been  urged  was  the  belief 
that  Louisiana  was  not  suited  to  the  cereals  and  other  provision 
crops.  This  arose  from  the  fact  that  the  whole  labor  of  the  State 
under  the  slave  system  had  been  turned  toward  the  raising  of  sugar 
and  cotton.  The  emigrant  farmer,  accustomed  to  raising  grain  and 
stock  of  all  kinds,  was  not  attracted  to  a  country  which  was  un¬ 
known  as  a  grain  or  provision  producing  country,  but,  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  was  known  as  a  country  which  bought  all  its  supplies  abroad, 
and  raised  nothing  but  heavy  crops,  with  which  the  emigrant  was 
totally  unacquainted  and  which  he  believed  he  would  be  unable  to 
.  produce  by  his  own  labor.  There  were  those,  however,  in  Louisiana 
who  had  been  accustomed  for  years  to  raise  their  own  supplies,  and  j 
who  knew  that  all  the  small  grain  crops,  as  well  as  many  other 
profitable  crops,  could  be  grown  with  more  ease  and  certainty  here 
;  than  in  the  Western  States,  and  that  pork,  beef  and  mutton,  of  the 
finest  quality,  could  be  produced  here  at  less  than  one-third  of  what 
it  cost  to  produce  it  in  the  West.  When,  therefore,  the  Mississippi 
river  was  fully  occupied  by  the  Federal  army  during  the  war,  and 
all  chance  to  import  supplies  was  cut  off  to  those  living  in  the  interior 
of  Louisiana,  the  people  were  compelled  to  give  up  the  culture  of 
cotton  and  sugar,  and  devote  themselves  to  the  production  of  food 
with  which  to  support  their  families  and  keep  up  their  armies.  And 
i  then,  to  the  astonishment  of  nearly  every  one,  it  was  found  that  no 
;  soil  on  earth  could  surpass  the  rich  lands  of  Louisiana  in  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  grain  and  food  crops  of  all  kinds. 

!  In  the  report  of  Judge  J.  B.  Robertson,  on  the  resources  of  Louis¬ 
iana,  made  to  the  Legislature  in  1861,  and  fully  endorsed  by  that  body 
for  its  accuracy,  we  find  the  following: 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA. 


29 


“Wheat  has  been  raised  in  north  Louisiana,  in  the  pine  hills,  by- 
hundreds  of  persons,  for  thirty  years  or  more,  and  with  a  good  yield 
for  the  character  of  the  land  and  the  system  of  culture,  quite  aver¬ 
aging  the  yield  in  the  Northwestern  States.  During  the  war,  the 
scarcity  of  flour  greatly  stimulated  the  cultivation  of  wheat,  and 
many  of  the  rich  cotton  lands  of  the  lied  river  valley  were  devoted  to 
I  wheat,  and  the  planters  had  just  begun  to  understand  and  extend  its  j 
culture.  Though  in  many  cases  defective  seed  was  used,  yet  I  have 
seen  sixty  bushels  raised  to  the  acre.’7  *  *  “Wherever  the  United 
States  cavalry  encamped  in  Louisiana  during  the  war,  wheat,  rye, 
oats  and  barley  sprouted  from  the  seed  scattered  where  they  fed  their 
horses,  and,  when  undisturbed,  headed  finely  and  ripened  well ;  the  ex¬ 
traordinary  size  and  weight  of  the  wheat  and  barley  heads  showing  j 
that  the  soil  was  peculiarly  adapted  to  their  growth.  A  gentleman  i 
residing  in  the  swamps  of  Assumption,  assures  me  that  he  has  raised 
wheat  and  rye  there  for  twenty-two  years,  and  that  he  has  never  had 
a  failure;  both  grains  frequently  made  forty  bushels  to  the  acre.” 

Other  instances  are  cited  in  this  report,  to  show  that  wheat  has 
been  raised  in  Louisiana  time  and  again  ever  since  the  earliest  set¬ 
tlement  of  the  country,  under  all  sorts  of  circumstances,  and  in  every 
variety  of  soil,  and  with  a  success  and  certainty  which  show  that 
we  have  only  to  direct  our  attention  to  grain-raising,  to  make  Louis¬ 
iana  the  greatest  grain  country  in  the  world,  and  the  Egypt  of 
America.  The  mouths  of  the  Nile  and  the ’mouths  of  the  Mississippi 
are  on  the  same  parallel  of  latitude,  and  Cairo,  in  Egypt,  and  New 
Orleans  are  on  the  same  line;  and,  while  the  valley  of  the  Nile  is 
limited  to  a  narrow  strip  of  fertile  land,  hemmed  in  by  the  sands  of 
the  desert,  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  in  lower  Louisiana,  is  over 
a  hundred  miles  in  width,  and  is  everywhere  bordered  by  rich 
uplands  and  fertile  prairies.  All  the  plants  and  fruits  of  Egypt,  in¬ 
cluding  the  tall  and  graceful  date-palm  of  the  desert,  flourish  with 
equal  vigor  and  maturity  in  Louisiana. 

Already  numbers  of  substantial  farmers  from  Indiana,  Illinois, 
i  Iowa,  Wisconsin  and  Ohio  are  selling  out  their  farms  and  moving 
into  the  richer  lands  and  better  climate  of  Louisiana.  Indeed,  some 
entire  portions  of  the  State  are  rapidly  passing  into  the  hands  of 
|  Northwestern  farmers,  who  design  raising  stock  and  grain.  Just  at 
this  time  there  is  a  considerable  excitement  upon  this  subject, 
j  New  Orleans  and  the  country  around  are  filled  with  Northern  and 

j  Western  men  anxious  to  buy  Louisiana  estates.  Mr. - ,  one  of 

|  the  largest  and  most  intelligent  farmers  in  central  Illinois,  has  just 
j  passed  through  New  Orleans  on  his  way  home,  after  a  careful  exam- 


30  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


ination  of  the  Attakapas  and  Teche  country.  Said  he,  “  I  have  here¬ 
tofore  thought  that  central  Illinois  was  the  finest  farming  country 
in  the  world.  I  own  a  large  farm  there,  with  improvements  equal  to 
any  in  the  country.  I  cultivated  about  two  thousand  acres  in  small 
grain  this  year  besides  other  crops,  but  since  I  have  seen  the  Teche 
and  Attakapas  country  I  do  not  see  how  any  man  can  live  in  Illinois. 
I  find  that  I  could  raise  everything  in  Louisiana  that  can  be  raised 
in  Illinois,  and  that  I  can  raise  a  hundred  things  here  which  cannot 
be  raised  in  Illinois.  I  find  the  lands  easier  worked  in  Louisiana, 
infinitely  richer,  and  yielding  far  more;  and  with  the  fairest  climate 
on  earth  and  no  trouble  to  get  to  market.  I  shall  return  to  Illinois, 
sell  out,  and  persuade  my  neighbors  to  do  the  same,  and  return  to 
Louisiana  to  spend  the  remainder  of  my  days.” 

This  gentleman  is  well  known,  and  he  has  given  orders  to  a  real 
estate  agency  here  to  buy  up  large  bodies  of  land  for  himself  and 
his  friends.  This  is  an  actual  and  now  every  day  occurrence.  The 
abolition  of  slavery,  the  failure  and  utter  breaking  up  of  the  cotton 
culture,  have  thrown  nearly  all  of  the  large  plantations  into  the 
market  at  a  nominal  price;  and  the  shrewd,  practical  farmers  of  the 
Northwest  having  heard  from  their  soldiers,  who  invaded  Louisiana 
during  the  rebellion,  of  the  rich  soil,  the  mild  and  healthful  climate, 
and  the  innumerable  productions  of  Louisiana,  are  coming  by 
scores  to  this  State,  having  sold  out  their  impoverished  lands  in  the 
Northwest,  and  having  bought  lands  of  inexhaustible  fertility  here 
at  a  low  price.  Louisiana  can  now  compare,  with  every  advantage 
in  her  favor,  with  the  West  and  Northwest  in  the  cheapness  and 
fertility  of  her  lands,  while  the  Northwest  connot  at  all  compare 
with  Louisiana  in  climate,  in  mild  and  equable  seasons,  in  yield  to 
the  acre,  in  variety  and  value  of  products,  and  its  proximity  to 
market  and  facilities  for  shipment;  for  the  twenty  thousand  miles  of 
navigation  in  Louisiana  make  it  the  best  watered  region  on  the 
globe,  and  independent  of  her  numerous  railroads,  give  her  advan¬ 
tages  in  cheap  transportation  at  all  seasons  over  any  region  in 
Europe  or  America;  and  it  is,  to-day,  the  most  inviting  field  on 
earth  to  the  emigrant.  Louisiana  has  a  record  as  old  as  her  history 
of  her  tolerance  and  kindness  towards  emigrants,  and  the  large 
proportion  of  foreigners  in  her  population  shows  that  even  with  all 
the  disadvantages  which  have  heretofore  beset  her,  and  now  happily 
removed,  her  genial  climate,  fruitful  soil,  and  generous  laws  and 
people  were  not  unappreciated.  All  that  could  tempt  the  emigrant 
to  the  West  and  Northwest  can  be  found  to  greater  advantage  here, 
and  already  the  tide  is  turning  in  this  direction. 


I 

INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  31 


Let  any  one  watch  the  daily  quotations  of  the  New  York  market 
and  let  him  note  the  difference  between  the  prices  of  Northern  and 
Southern  flour,  and  he  will  at  once  perceive  the  immense  superi¬ 
ority  of  Southern  flour. 

The  report  of  Judge  Robertson  to  the  Legislature  of  1861,  before 
referred  to,  says: 

“  The  daily  quotations  show  that  Southern  flour,  raised  in  Mis¬ 
souri,  Tennessee,  and  Virginia,  brings  from  three  to  five  dollars  more 
per  barrel  than  the  best  New  York  Genesee  flour;  that  of  Louisiana 
and  Texas  is  far  superior  to  the  former  even,  owing  to  the  superior 
dryness,  and  the  fact  that  it  contains  more  gluten,  and  does  not 
ferment  so  easily.  Southern  flour  makes  better  dough  and  maccaroni 
than  Northern  or  Western  flour;  it  is  better  adapted  for  transporta¬ 
tion  over  the  sea,  and  keeps  better  in  the  tropics.  It  is  therefore 
the  flonr  that  is  sought  after  for  Brazil,  Central  America,  Mexico, 
and  the  West  India  markets,  which  are  at  our  doors.  A  barrel  of 
strictly  Southern  flour  will  make  twenty  pounds  more  bread  than 
Illinois  flour,  because,  being  so  much  dryer,  it  takes  more  water 
in  making  up.  In  addition  to  this  vast  superiority  of  our  grain,  we 
have  other  advantages  over  the  Western  States  in  grain  growing. 
Our  climate  advances  the  crop  so  rapidly  that  we  can  cut  out  our 
wheat  six  weeks  before  a  scythe  is  put  into  the  fields  of  Illinois ; 
and  being  so  near  the  gulf,  we  avoid  the  delays  in  shipping  and  the 
long  transportation,  the  cost  of  which  consumes  nearly  one-half  of 
the  product  of  the  West.  These  advantages,  the  superior  quality  of 
the  flour,  the  earlier  harvest,  and  the  cheap  and  easy  shipment, 
enable  us  absolutely  to  forestall  the  West  in  the  foreign  demand, 
which  is  now  about  40,000,000  of  bushels  annually,  and  is  rapidly 
increasing,  and  also  in  the  Atlantic  seaboard  trade.  Massachusetts, 
it  is  calculated,  raises  not  more  than  one  month’s  supply  of  flour  for 
her  large  population.  New  York  not  six  months’  supply  for  her 
population,  and  the  other  Atlantic  States  in  like  proportion.  This 
vast  deficit  is  now  supplied  by  the  Western  States,  and  the  trade 
has  enriched  the  West,  and  has  built  railroads  in  every  direction  to 
carry  toward  the  East  the  gold-producing  grain.  We  can,  if  we 
choose,  have  a  monopoly  of  this  immense  trade,  and  the  time  may 
not  be  far  distant  when,  in  the  dispensation  of  Providence,  the  West, 
which  contributed  so  largely  to  the  uprooting  of  our  servile  system  and 
the  destruction  of  our  property,  will  find  that  she  has  forced  us  into  a 
rivalry  against  which  she  cannot  compete,  and  that  she  will  have  to  draw 
not  only  her'supplies  of  cotton,  sugar  and  rice,  but  even  her  breadstujfs 
from  the  South” 


32  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


Let  us  see  what  Northern  men  say  in  regard  to  the  Northwest  and 
[  West.  In  the  monthly  report  to  the  Commissioner  of  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  established  by  the  United  States  at  Washington,  for 
the  month  of  October,  1861,  the  Commissioner  says;  u  In  a  tour  to 
the  Northwest,  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  and  im¬ 
proving  facilities  for  the  collection  of  agricultural  statistics,  and  for 
conference  with  prdfessional  or  other  intelligent  agriculturists 
relative  to  department  co-operation  in  aid  of  the  interests  and  supply 
of  the  wants  of  that  great  section,  the  editor  of  this  report  was  struck 
particularly  with  the  ruinous  tendency  of  the  present  system  of 
wheat  culture.  Is  proof  of  impoverishment  needed  ?  One  witness 
only  is  wanted — the  soil  itself.  First,  thirty  bushels  per  acre  is  the 
boast  of  the  farmer;  then  the  yield  drops  to  twenty -five,  to  twenty, 
to  fifteen,  and  finally  to  ten  and  eight.  Minnesota  claimed  twenty- 
two  bushels  average  a  few  years  ago  (some  of  her  enthusiastic 
friends  made  it  twenty-seven),  but  she  will  scarcely  average  this 
year  twelve,  and  will  never  again  make  twenty-two  under  the  present 
system  of  farming.  To  be  sure,  there  are  excuses  The  seasons  do  not 
suit,  as  formerly;  blight  or  rust  comes,  or  the  fly  invades — but  all  these 
things  are  evidences  of  exhaustion”  And  in  the  same  report  he  says:  4 
“  In  the  Northwest  wheat  culture  is  a  parody  upon  the  cotton  culture  of 
years  past.  It  is  running  one  product  into  excess,  and  ignoring  all 
others.  Northwestern  cultivators  are  scarcely  farmers,  they  are  wheat- 
growers.  Cattle  are  high  in  price,  horses  are  very  high,  milJc  is  scarce, 
and  butter  sometimes  unknown;  while  straw  stacks  are  burning,  and 
wheat  at  the  mercy  of  speculators  and  the  railroads,  and  bringing  prices 
only  under  the  curse  of  God  upon  foreign  wheat  fields,  and  when  foreign 
nations  are  in  danger  of  famine;  and  even  then,  but  a  moiety  comes  from  \ 
this  country  ”  And  he  might  have  added,  that  the  cost  of  transport¬ 
ation  to  the  Eastern  or  New  York  markets  was  ruinous  to  the 
farmer,  as  it  now  costs  two  bushels  and  a  half  of  wheat  to  get  one 
to  market  from  the  Northwest — that  is,  the  Minnesota,  or  even  the 
Illinois  farmer,  when  he  sends  three  and  a  half  bushels  of  wheat  to 
market,  gets  back  only  the  proceeds  of  one,  the  other  two  and  a  half 
bushels  having  been  consumed  in  transportation.  In  Louisiana  the 
transportation  may  be  altogether  by  water,  and  being,  at  all  events, 
so  close  to  the  Gulf,  it  costs  but  little  to  get  it  to  market,  and  the 
farmer  will,  out  of  three  bushels  shipped,  realize  an  average  of  not 
less  than  the  proceeds  of  two  and  a  half  bushels,  thus  having  an 
enormous  advantage  over  the  farmer  of  the  Northwest.  Should  the 
graingrower  of  the  Northwest  raise  thirty  bushels  to  the  acre,  while  i 
the  Louisiana  farmer  raised  but  ten,  yet  the  difference  in  the  cost  of 
transportation  would  put  as  much  money  into  the  pocket  of  the  one 


f 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA. 


33 


as  the  other.  But  such  is  not  the  case,  as  the  Louisiana  lands  are 
richer  and  yield  more  to  the  acre  of  every  species  of  grain,  and  the 
climate  brings  the  crop  to  maturity  two  months  earlier  than  in  the 
Northwest.  Mr.  Henry  C.  Carey,  LL.D.,  of  Philadelphia,  the  great¬ 
est  political  economist  of  America,  whose  “  Principles  of  Social 
Science  77  and  other  works  have  been  translated  and  circulated  exten¬ 
sively  in  Europe,  in  a  series  of  able  letters  addressed  lately  to  the 
Hon.  Henry  Wilson,  United  States  Senator  from  Massachusetts, 
referring  in  his  tenth  letter  specially  to  Louisiana,  says: 

“  At  the  South,  nature  has  provided  for  removal  of  all  existing 
difficulties,  having  placed  the  farmer  in  such  a  position  that  not  only 
is  he  nearer  to  the  great  markets  for  his  products  in  their  original 
forms,  but  that  he  may  convert  his  wheat  and  his  sweet  potatoes 
into  cotton,  into  pork,  oranges  or  any  other  of  the  numerous  fruits 
above  referred  to,  for  all  of  which  he  finds  an  outlet  in  the  various 
markets  of  the  world  Seeing  these  things,  and  seeing,  further, 
that  its  whole  upland  country  presents  one  of  the  most  magnificent 
climates  of  the  world,  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  day  is  at  hand  when 
emigration  to  the  South  and  Southwest  must  take  the  place  now  occupied 
by  emigration  to  the  West ,  and  when  power  is  to  pass  from  the  poor  soils 
of  the  Northeast  to  those  richer  ones  which  now  offer  themselves  in  such 
vast  abundance  in  the  centre,  the  South,  and  the  Southwest  ?  As  I  think, 
it  cannot.” 


And  again,  in  the  same  letter,  after  having  referred  to  the  capacity 
of  Louisiana  not  only  to  produce  sugar,  cotton  and  rice,  but  bread- 
stuffs  for  the  North  and  Northwest,  he  says: 

“  2d.  Is  it,  however,  for  breadstuffs  alone  that  the  North  is 
likely,  with  its  present  exhaustive  cultivation,  to  be  compelled 
to  look  to  the  South  ?  It  is  not;  the  sweet  potato,  which  can  be 
grown  on  ‘every  acre  in  Louisiana,7  and  of  which  the  yield, 
even  at  present,  ‘  averages  two  hundred  bushels  to  the  acre,7 
has,  during  the  war,  been  fully  tested  in  feeding  hogs;  and, 
quantity  and  quality  of  the  pork  considered,  been  found  to  be 
pound  for  pound,  fully  equal  to  Indian  corn,  of  which  the  average 
yield  of  the  States  north  and  west  of  the  Ohio  is  less  than  a  third  as 
much.  With  careful  cultivation  it  has  been  known  to  yield  more 
than  six  hundred  bushels,  or  six  times  as  much  as  can,  with  equal 
care  and  close  to  Eastern  markets,  be  obtained  of  the  great  staple 
of  the  North,  thereby  enabling  those  who  are  in  the  future  to  culti¬ 
vate  those  rich  Southern  lands  wholly  to  supersede  the  Northwest  in 
the  work  of  supplying  animal  as  well  as  vegetable  food  to  the  people 
of  the  tropics  and  of  Europe. 

5 


34  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


“Sixty  acres  to  the  hand,  it  is  said,  may  be  cultivated  in  grain. 
Combining  with  this  the  raising  of  cotton,  the  effect  of  diversifica¬ 
tion  of  agricultural  pursuits  is  thus  exhibited: 

“  Hops  may  be  seen  ‘  growing  thriftily  and  bearing  abundantly.’ 
The  State  is  1  prolific  in  native  dye  plants.’  In  its  forests  abounds 
‘  nearly  every  variety-  of  tree  known  in  the  United  States.’  For 
cattle  raising  it  is  perhaps  the  finest  country  of  the  world.  Turn, 
therefore,  in  which  direction  we  may,  we  find  that  nature  has  pro¬ 
vided  for  that  diversification  of  demand  for  human  service  for  which 
we  look  in  vain  amid  the  fields  of  Northern  States.  Seeking  for  it 
in  these  latter,  we  find  ourselves  compelled  to  look  below  the 
surface,  and  there  alone;  yet  there  it  is  that  Massachusetts,  anxious 
to  protect  her  pin  and  pipe  makers,  insists  that  it  shall  not  be 
sought. 

“  The  war  has  already  made  great  changes,  yet  are  they,  as  it 
would  seem,  but  preliminary  to  greater  in  the  future.” 

The  Honorable  Judge  Kelley,  representing  the  city  of  Philadelphia 
in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  one  of  the  very  ablest 
members  of  the  present  Congress,  a  gentlemen  of  broad  national 
views  and  far  reaching  comprehension,  having  examined  in  person 
the  States  lately  in  rebellion,  has  recently  made  a  tour  into  the 
Northwest,  and  while  there  was  invited  to  make  several  speeches. 
Of  these  speeches  “The  Iron  Age,”  of  New  York  says: 

“Judge  Kelley  went  with  a  voice  of  warning  to  the  West,  telling 
the  people  that  henceforth,  instead  of  finding  a  market  in  the  South 
for  their  grain,  and  beef,  and  other  food,  that  section  will  in  future 
not  only  supply  its  own  wants,  but  will  be  a  competitor  with  the 
West  for  supplying  other  markets — a  competitor,  too,  having  advan¬ 
tages  over  the  West  which  will  eventually  secure  its  triumph.” 

In  his  speech  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  September  20,  1861,  Judge 
Kelley  said: 

“  The  South  will  not  stop  raising  cotton,  but  will  grow  with  it  all 
manner  of  provisions,  corn,  hay,  beef  and  pork.  She  will  raise 
more  cotton  than  ever.  Every  man  will  put  part  of  his  estate  in 
cotton,  and  part  in  wheat,  rye,  barley,  corn  and  sweet  potatoes,  and 
they  will  raise  their  own  pork.  Gentlemen  of  Illinois,  allow  me  to 
say  that  they  can  give  you  five  and  beat  you  at  raising  pork.  Do 
you  believe  it?  I  don’t  suppose  one  of  you  believes  it,  but  it  is 
nevertheless  true  that  they  can  grow  grain,  with  the  exception  of 
corn,  successfully.  They  raise,  for  hogs,  barley,  sweet  potatoes, 
peaches,  &c.  Does  it  not  seem  sacrilegious  to  raise  peaches  as  food 
for  hogs?  yet  they  are  so  prolific  and  grow  so  luxuriantly  that 
wherever  a  stone  is  thrown  and  covered  with  soil  there  a  tree  will 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  .  35 


spring  up  that  will  need  no  grafting  nor  care.  So  that  the  peach  is 
a  good  and  cheap  crop  to  feed  to  swine.  They  can  raise  six  hundred 
bushels  of  sweet  potatoes  to  the  acre;  two  hundred  bushels  is  the 
average  crop  under  artless  slave  culture,  leaving  the  best  lands  for 
cotton.  The  experiment  was  tried  during  the  war  of  dividing  two 
litters  of  pigs  of  the  same  age,  pound  for  pound — one  litter  to  be  fed  j 
on  Northern  corn  and  the  other  on  sweet  potatoes.  On  arriving  at 
maturity  the  corn  fed  hogs  had  three  per  cent,  advantage  on  the  hoof  j 
over  the  potato  fed;  but  when  they  came  to  be  barreled,  so  much 
greater  was  the  dripping  by  the  heating  effect  of  the  corn  that  the 
sweet  potato  fed  had  the  advantage.  Where  they  mingle  barley, 
of  which  they  can  get  sixty  bushels  to  the  acre,  they  make  better 
muscle  and  fat  both.”  In  this  he  referred  directly  to  Louisiana  by  j 
name. 

Again,  at  Milwaukee,  in  the  State  of  Wisconsin,  on  the  24th  of 
September,  1861,  after  stating  that  he  had  just  visited  seven  of  the 
Southern  States,  he  said: 

“  In  support  of  these  views  I  have  with  me,  but  I  am  not  going  to 
detain  you  with  extracts  from  it,  an  address  made  at  the  close  of  the 
agricultural,  mechanical  and  industrial  fair  in  New  Orleans,  by 
William  M.  Burwell,  of  Virginia,  in  which  the  Southern  people  are 
urged,  as  they  are  by  Mr.  Robertson,  to  divide  their  lands,  to  remem¬ 
ber  that  the  South  has  three  seasons;  that  wheat  matures  in  the  ! 
spring;  that  corn  matures  at  midsummer;  and  that  cotton  is  a  fall 
crop — and  advised  them  to  take  advantage  of  all  the  seasons.  Those 
gentlemen  agree,  as  do  a  score  of  writers  whose  articles  I  have  here, 
in  urging  the  people  to  put  not  more  than  one-tenth  of  their  land  in 
cotton,  and  the  remainder  in  grass  and  diversified  crops  of  food,  j 
They  tell  them  that  the  South  abounds  in  seaports;  that  the  grain  of 
|  evei'y  part  of  the  South  can  be  got  to  market  in  bulk  in  vessels  in 
which  a  bushel  of  wheat  may  be  carried  twenty-three  thousand  miles — 
i  from  San  Francisco  to  New  York — cheaper  than  it  can  be  carried 
from  Minnesota  or  Kansas  to  New  York  over  railroads.  They  tell 
j  them  that  theirs  is  the  early  season;  that  they  can  avenge  them-  j 
!  selves  upon  the  West  and  North,  by  preoccupying  the  markets. 
These  are  not  pleasant  tidings  to  bring  to  a  people  prosperous  as 
are  those  of  the  West,  and  so  identified  with  their  present  pursuits 
j  that  they  will  yield  them  reluctantly.” 

In  commenting  on  and  indorsing  this  speech,  an  Iowa  paper,  the 
Burlington  Hawkeye  (a  journal  which  faithfully  and  ably  advocates 
|  the  interests  of  American  industry),  in  a  late  issue  thus  speaks  on 
I  this  matter: 

“  In  Judge  Kelley's  speech  at  St.  Louis,  and  a  more  recent  one  at 


- — — — _ — — 

36 

INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 

Springfield,  Illinois,  he  directed  public  attention  to  the  important  fact 
that  a  great  and  almost  universal  change  of  pursuits  is  taking  place  in 
the  South,  and  that  this  change  will  necessitate  as  vital  a  change  in  the 
Northwest.  Formerly,  as  he  tells  us,  and  as  we  all  know,  the  whole 
cotton  producing  region  received  almost  the  whole  of  its  food  for 
man  and  beast  from  this  region.  We  supplied  it  with  pork,  horses, 
mules,  wheat,  corn,  oats,  hay;  and  in  fact  all  that  the  South  lived 
on  except  fresh  vegetables,  was  produced  here.  The  South  devoted 
itself  to  producing  cotton,  sugar,  rice  and  tobacco;  whatever  else  it 
wanted  it  brought  from  the  Northwest  and  East,  and  from  Europe. 
All  this  is  to  be  changed.  While  the  South  will  hereafter  raise  a 
certain  quantity  of  cotton,  etc.,  it  will  also  grow  all  the  food  it  needs, 
and  much  to  spare.  It  can  do  this  with  ease.  Its  soil  is  more  fertile 
apd  its  climate  more  genial  than  ours.  Wheat,  rye,  corn,  grow  there 
to  perfection.  The  yield  is  more  abundant  per  acre,  and  the  cost  of 
getting  it  to  an  Eastern  market  or  to  Europe  is  less  than  it  is  with 
us.  They  also  anticipate  us  with  their  harvest,  and  can  put  their 
surplus  into  the  market  sooner  than  we  can.  The  result  of  these 
facts  is  that  the  Northwest  not  only  loses  its  former  nearest  and  most 
profitable  market,  but  will  have  a  new  competitor  in  those  which  are* 
left,  and  that  competitor  will  have  numerous  advantages  which  we 
have  not.” 

And  the  Philadelphia  Press,  Mr.  Forney’s  paper,  says: 

“  The  social  and  industrial  revolutions  consequent  on  the  great 
war  of  the  rebellion  are  in  no  wise  inferior  to  the  political  one. 
The  South,  driven  to  a  knowledge  of  her  true  interest  and  fecund 
wealth  by  temporary  misfortune,  becomes  a  great  corn  and  wheat 
growing  section.  A  few  years  since  she  was  a  buyer  from  the 
Northwest.  Now  she  not  only  produces  sufficient  for  her  own  con¬ 
sumption,  but  enters  the  market  as  a  competitor — and  a  most  formid¬ 
able  one — with  her  old  suppliers.  With  water  transportation  against 
rail,  and  a  crop  that  ripens  two  or  three  weeks  before  the  Western 
sickles  are  sharpened,  the  South  for  the  future  commands  the  grain 
market  of  the  New  World.” 

These  extracts  are  sufficient  to  show  that  the  leading  men  and 
journals  in  .the  North  and  West  begin  to  appreciate  the  wonderful 
advantages  of  the  South  over  the  North  and  West  in  grain  and  pro¬ 
vision  raising.  All  the  chief  lands  of  the  Northwest  now  open  to 
immigrants  are  more  than  a  thousand  miles  from  the  seaboard 
markets,  are  nearly  all  devoid  of  sufficient  timber,  and  the  ground  is 
frozen  for  five  months  of  the  year.  So  great  is  the  severity  of  the 
cold  there  that  the  rivers  and  canals  are  frozen  up  nearly  the  whole 
winter  and  navigation  stops,  and  the  railroads  are  not  unfrequently 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  31 


compelled  to  suspend  operations  on  account  of  the  heavy  snows  and 
winter  storms.  The  growing  season  in  the  Northwest  and  Western 
States  is  only  six  months,  and  but  a  single  crop  can  be  raised  on 
the  same  ground  in  the  year.  Cattle  and  stock  of  all  kinds  must  be 
provided  with  winter  food  and  housed  for  months  at  an  enormous 
tax  to  the  farmer,  while  the  extreme  cold  imposes  the  necessity  of 
constant  fires  and  the  most  expensive  woolen  clothing  and  heavy 
fabrics  for  the  inhabitants.  In  Louisiana  the  lands  are  near  the 
great  markets  of  the  world,  and  are  well  timbered  with  the  finest 
forests  on  the  continent,  for  even  with  four  millions  of  acres  of  prai¬ 
rie  lands,  these  prairies  are  traversed  by  streams  at  short  intervals, 
and  along  their  margins  there  is  always  an  abundance  of  pine  timber. 
Here  the  lakes  and  rivers  are  never  frozen,  and  steamers  and  sailing 
vessels  and  railroads  are  never  interrupted  by  cold.  Ice  is  seldoili 
seen,  and  frost  rarely  occurs.  The  growing  season  lasts  the  whole 
year;  one  crop  is  taken  off  and  another  is  put  in.  Three  valuable 
and  abundant  food  and  forage  crops,  each  different,  have  been  all 
raised  on  the  same  ground,  one  after  the  other,  in  a  year,  such  as  r 

millet,  then  sweet  potatoes — the  potatoes  for  food  and  the  vines  for-d 
•toy — and  then  turnips  or  carrots,  each  yielding  enormously  and 
giving  a  rotation  which  benefits  the  land.  Horses,  cattle,  sheep, 

.  hogs  and  goats  can  thrive  on  the  winter  grasses  if  necessary,  and 
only  seek  shelter  from  the  rains.  And  as  the  cold  here  is  only  bracing, 
not  chilling,  there  is  seldom  need  for  heavy  clothing,  and  many  sit 
without  fires  during  the  whole  winter,  and  without  discomfort. 
Hence  farming,  gardening,  and  all  outdoor  work  are  carried  on  with¬ 
out  cessation.  And  as  for  health,  away  from  the  cities,  no  State 
can  compare  with  Louisiana. 

As  the  West  has  grown  rich  by  raising  pork  for  market,  the  people 
of  Louisiana  are  now  directing  their  attention  to  it.  Judge  J.  B. 
Robertson,  in  his  essays  on  raising  swine,  says: 

“  In  many  parts  of  the  North  they  dare  not  allow  their  sows  to 
breed  twice  in  the  year  for  fear  of  the  cold,  while  with  us  the  sow 
breeds  at  any  season  of  the  year,  and  always  twice,  without  the 
necessity  of  housing  the  pigs  from  the  cold.  This  difference,  and  the 
losses  from  cold  and  overlying  among  the  pigs  in  the  North,  and  the 
well  known  fact  that  it  takes  more  food  to  keep  up  fat  in  a  cold 
climate,  make  at  once  a  difference  of  nearly  two  to  one  in  our  favor  in 
the  increase.  The  tendency  of  all  warm  climates  is  to  fully  develop 
all  animals,  man  included,  earlier  than  in  colder  climates,  and  hence 
hogs  arrive  at  maturity  far  earlier  here  than  at  the  North.  There  is 
in  this  respect  a  wide  difference  in  breeds,  some  arriving  at  maturity 
in  half  the  time  that  others  do;  but  in  all  breeds  our  climate  produces 


38  •  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


maturity,  and  consequently  the  power  of  procreation  earlier  than  at 
the  North. 

“  I  have  known  young1  jilts  to  receive  the  male  at  four  months  old, 
and  bring  forth  their  second  litter  of  pigs  within  twelve  months  from 
their  own  birth.  An  astonishing  increase  is  thus  produced  in  a  short 
time.  I  could  cite  an  instance  of  a  gentleman  of  veracity,  who  avers 
that  he  once  produced  three  hundred  head  in  one  year  from  a  single 
sow. 

“Hogs  are  liable  to  very  few  diseases  in  Louisiana,  for  cold  with 
man  or  beast  is  the  prolific  parent  of  ills,  and  the  mildness  of  our 
climate  is  very  favorable  in  this  respect. 

“  While  we  can  average  only  fifteen  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre,  we 
can  raise,  everywhere  in  Louisiana  an  average  of  two  hundred  bushels 
of  sweet  potatoes.  I  have  measured  up  six  hundred  and  twenty-one 
bushels  from  an  acre.  With  an  ordinary  plow  and  team  a  Louisian¬ 
ian  devoting  himself  exclusively  to  the  cultivation  of  the  sweet 
potato,  as  the  Western  man  devotes  himself  to  the  culture  of  corn, 
can  put  in  and  cultivate  more  acres  of  the  sweet  potato  than  the 
Westerner  can  cultivate  of  corn,  with  the  same  plows  and  teams. 

“  In  breaking  up  his  ground  the  potato  planter  can  have  the  same 
.  labor  saving  machine  which  the  corn  planter  uses.  In  ridging  up  he 
caju  avail  himself  of  a  machine  now  in  use  that  will  prepare  ten  to 
M  i  .  twelve  acres  a  day.  While  the  corn  needs  several  workings,  pota¬ 
toes  need  only  two.  While  the  corn  planter  of  the  West  is  limited 
to  some  six  weeks  as  his  planting  season,  the  potato  planter  may 
plant  from  February  to  August.  And  machines  have  been  invented 
and  are  in  successful  use,  which  perform  the  operation  of  digging 
potatoes  far  more  perfectly  and  rapidly  than  any  machines  can 
gather  corn.  If,  therefore,  the  potato  planter  avail  himself  of  the 
'  labor  saving  machine  made  for  his  purpose,  he  can  cultivate  and 
gather  with  ease  more  ground  than  can  possibly  be  cultivated  by  any 
one  in  corn,  by  any  means  now  available,  and  the  yield  will  be  nearly 
ten  times  as  much  potatoes  as  corn  per  hand. 

“Again,  barley  averages  in  the  North  and  West  only  a  little  over 
twenty  bushels  per  acre,  while  in  Louisiana  it  will  average  over  fifty 
bushels  to  the  acre. 

“  The  level  lands  of  Louisiana  are  better  than  the  prairies  of 
Illinois  for  the  labor  saving  machines  used  in  the  culture  of  small 
grain.  With  these  two  crops,  and  no  other  advantages,  we  could 
defy  the  competition  of  the  Northwest  in  hog  raising.  Barley  makes 
muscle  and  firmness  of  bone,  and  is  far  superior  to  corn  in  giving 
body  and  frame  to  the  hog,  and  is  everywhere  used  for  this  purpose 
where  it  is  not  too  dear.  Barley  is  far  better  than  corn  for  feeding 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA. 


89 


v 


work  stock  in  summer  during’  the  cultivating  season,  as  corn  makes 
fat  and  is  heating,  while  barley  makes  muscle  and  is  cooling.  Bar¬ 
ley  comes  early  in  the  season,  and  may  be  used  in  raising  the  pigs, 
and  in  preparing  the  hogs  for  fattening. 

“  Experiment  has  shown  that  a  bushel  of  sweet  potatoes  will  go 
quite  as  far  or  further  in  fattening  a  hog  as  corn.  It  is  shown  that 
the  saccharine  matter  and  starch  in  the  sweet  potato  produces  quite 
as  much  fat  as  the  starch  and  oil  of  the  corn;  and  while  quite  as 
firm,  it  is  far  sweeter  and  more  delicious  than  the  fat  produced  by 
corn,  and  does  not  run  like  corn  fat  or  lose  in  weight  while  curing. 
In  addition  to  the  advantages  we  have  in  the  sweet  potato  and  bar¬ 
ley,  there  are  many  others  which  our  climate  gives  us.  Our  pastures 
are  always  green,  and  while  the  Northern  hog  raiser  is  feeding  from 
his  crib  his  whole  stock  of  hogs  for  six  months,  and  housing  them 
from  the  severity  of  a  winter  which  leaves  no  sprig  of  green  grass, 
our  clover  pastures  are  white  with  blossoms  and,  with  a  variety  of 
other  grasses,  furnish  abundant  sustenance  to  our  hogs  and  cattle. 
At  the  same  time,  too,  our  forests  are  filled  with  acorns.  This  item 
alone,  of  saving  winter  feed,  immensely  lessens  the  cost  of  hog 


Louisiana  can  defy  comparison  with  any  other  country  on  the 


globe  in  the  substantial  and  luxurious  comforts  of  her  homes.  We 
will  describe  an  actual  one,  of  which  there  are  many  counterparts  in 
the  State <  Near  the  Gulf,  on  a  small  stream  or  bayou,  as  they  are 
called  from  the  native  Indian  tongue,  is  a  well  built  house  with 
broad  porches  around  it.  The  grounds  are  well  planted  with  a  great 
variety  of  flowers,  shrubs  and  evergreen  shade  and  forest  trees, 
bordered  with  bananas  and  groves  of  tall  pecans,  yielding  delicious 
nuts;  near  at  hand  is  a  garden  plot  filled  with  rare  flowers  blooming 
the  year  round  in  the  open  air,  and  now,  in  the  last  of  December, 
filling  the  air  with  their  perfume.  In  the  rear  is  an  extensive 
vegetable  garden  from  which  may  be  taken,  any  summer’s  day,  full 
twenty  species  of  vegetables  for  the  table,  and  in  which  now,  in  mid 
winter,  may  be  seen  cabbages,  kohlrabbi,  cauliflower,  brocoli,  lettuce, 
spinach,  cresses,  mustard,  turnips,  carrots,  beets,  parsnips,  radishes, 
onions,  leeks,  eschalots,  parsley,  green  peas,  egg  plants,  salsify, 
rhubarb,  okra,  celery,  and  others.  Close  at  hand  is  an  orange  grove 
on  one  side,  loaded  with  golden  fruit,  on  the  other  side  is  an  orchard 
of  peach,  apple  and  pear,  plum,  fig  and  quince  trees,  with  here  and 
there  pomegranite  and  persimmons.  A  vine  trellis  is  loaded  with 
vines  of  many  varieties;  here  is  the  mespilus  or  Japan  plum,  some 
in  full  bloom,  others  with  the  fruit  half  grown,  ready  to  ripen  in 


40  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


February  Blackberries,  raspberries,  strawberries,  currants,  and 
gooseberries  grow  in  the  garden  each  in  its  season.  Bee  hives  sur¬ 
round  the  yard.  A  dairy  well  filled  with  milk,  cream,  butter  and 
buttermilk.  In  front  of  the  house,  and  connected  with  the  bayou, 
is  a  fishpond  well  stocked  with  fish  and  surrounded  by  ozier  willow. 
Extensive  poultry  yards  contain  turkeys,  peafowls,  Guineahens  and 
chickens  of  all  kinds.  A  dove  cote  is  swarming  with  pigeons,  each 
pair  of  which  furnish  fat  squabs  ten  times  a  year  for  the  table;  any 
number  of  geese  and  ducks  may  be  seen  sporting  in  the  bayou.  A 
large  cowhouse  is  stocked  with  sleek  cows,  which  keep  in  full  flesh 
on  the  ever  green  grass  alone.  Sheep,  goats,  hogs,  horses,  mules, 
fat  calves  and  bullocks  may  be  seen  everywhere  in  the  pastures. 
Large  deep  underground  cisterns  furnish  pure  drinking  water  in 
abundance.  The  sea  breeze  moderates  the  heat  of  summer  and 
tempers  the  cold  of  winter.  Bear,  deer,  cranes,  wild  geese,  brandt, 
ducks,  quails,  woodcock,  snipe,  doves  and  squirrels  abound,  while 
near  at  hand  the  Gulf  teems  with  the  finest  fish,  oysters,  crabs  and 
shrimps.  Good  roads  and  convenient  railroad  and  water  transporta¬ 
tion  furnish  quick  and  certain  means  of  access  to  market.  This  is 
no  fancy  sketch,  and  any  one  may  have  all  these  comforts  and  many 
more  with  but  little  effort  in  this  favored  clime.  What  a  difference 
between  this  State  and  the  Northwest  !  Now,  while  the  icy  hand  of 
Winter  and  his  snowy  mantle  forbid  all  outdoor  labor  at  the  North, 
here  the  plow  is  busy  preparing  the  ground  for  the  coming  harvests, 
and  the  air  is  only  bracing  in  its  temperature. 


I 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  41 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

- *  ©  - - 

October  11,  1861. 

To  Secretary  of  the  Bureau  of  Immigration: 

Dear  Sir — I  have  about  three  thousand  acres  of  land,  all  in  one 
body,  about  eighteen  hundred  of  which  is  cleared  land;  the  balance 
is  in  timber.  This  land  is  situated  in  a  dry,  healthy  region  of  the 
country,  sixty  miles  from  New  Orleans,  with  a  public  road  running 
through  its  entire  length.  It  has  timber  enough  for  all  practical 
purposes,  and  is  also  well  supplied  with  the  best  water  in  the  coun¬ 
try.  It  is  regarded  by  all  who  know  it,  to  be  the  best  upland  tract 
in  the  country. 

This  tract  I  propose  to  sell  to  immigrants  (German)  in  lots  from 
forty  (40)  to  eighty  (80)  acres,  to  the  amount  of  the  whole  tract,  if 
they  desire  it,  each  taking  a  percentage  of  the  timbered  land,  on  the 
following  terms,  viz  :  On  a  credit  of  one  and  two  years,  without  j 
interest,  they  paying  me  one  hundred  pounds  of  lint  cotton,  or  four 
hundred  pounds  of  seed  cotton  per  acre,  to  be  a  good  merchantable 
article;  and  if  desired,  a  further  time  will  be  given  by  their  paying 
ten  per  cent,  interest.  This  land  will  produce  from  five  hundred  to 
a  thousand  pounds  of  seed  cotton  to  the  acre,  and  from  ten  to  thirty 
bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre;  it  will  also  produce  fine  tobacco,  fine 
Irish  and  sweet  potatoes,  and  vegetables  of  all  varieties.  There  is 
also  a  good  township  school  in  operation  at  a  convenient  distance. 

In  fixing  the  price  of  land,  the  time  given,  each  laborer  can  pay 
for  forty  acres  of  land  and  support  himself  from  the  proceeds  of  the 
crops  raised.  Information  will  be  furnished  them  at  any  time  as  to  the 
best  system  of  planting ,  cultivating ,  and  gathering  cotton  crops ,  as  I 
have  been  regularly  engaged  in  cultivating  cotton  for  thirty-five 
years. 

It  would  be  better  for  the  immigrant  to  be  here  before  or  about  the 
first  of  January,  if  possible. 

All  kinds  of  apples,  peaches,  plums,  pears  and  grapes  can  be 
grown  well  here. 

I  want  none  but  good  and  reliable  immigrants,  and  the  reason  I 
say  two  years  which  I  propose  to  give  them  free  of  interest,  I  sup- 
6 


42 


INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


pose  will  enable  them  to  fit  themselves  up,  and  pay  a  part  or  all  of 
the  purchase.  I  fixed  the  price  to  be  paid  in  cotton,  as  our  currency 
is  upon  an  uncertain  basis,  as  the  cotton  may  go  up  or  down  in 
price,  and  land  will  go  up  or  down  as  cotton  may  be  affected  by  it. 
If  they  are  industrious,  and  pay  annually,  and  wish  a  further  time  to 
pay  in,  they  can  have  five  or  more  years  by  paying  ten  per  cent, 
interest. 

Of  course,  they  may  want  me  to  supply  them  with  rations  and 
farming  implements.  These  articles,  you  know,  I  would  have  to  pay 
cash  for,  and  hence,  would  expect  them  to  pay  me  ten  per  oent.  on 
the  cash  so  paid  out  for  their  use. 

I  have  just  closed  a  contract  with  a  mechanic  to  put  up  the  houses 
for  the  immigrants  to  live  in.  He  will  commence  work  next  week. 

I  would  like  to  get,  about  the  first  of  January,  a  man  and  his  wife 
to  attend  to  the  garden  and  kitchen;  also,  a  woman  to  do  house¬ 
work.  I  want  them  perfectly  reliable,  and  those  that  can  speak  the 
English  language.  Please  keep  a  look  out  for  one.  I  mention  this 
matter  to  you  now,  hoping  you  will  take  some  notice  of  it.  *  * 

Very  respectfully, 

A****B***. 

Here  is  an  opportunity  for  the  many  young  German  married  men, 
who  are  doing  nothing  in  the  city,  and  wish  to  have  a  home  they  can 
call  their  own  in  future.  They  can  obtain  all  desired  information  by 
calling  at  the  Bureau  of  Immigration,  No.  112  Customhouse  street, 
between  Royal  and  Bourbon. 

Respectfully, 

J.  C.  KATHMAN, 

Chief  of  the  Bureau. 


No.  135  Royal  Street,  New  Orleans,  ) 
October  25,  1861  \ 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  : 

I  have  twenty  acres  of  land  six  miles  from  this  city  on  the  Gen- 
tilly  road.  I  wish  to  get  a  man  and  his  wife  to  work  said  land  on 
half  shares.  There  are  four  hundred  plum  and  nine  pecan  trees 
on  it.  Is  rich  land.  A  good  market  garden.  The  person  will  have 
to  supply  himself  with  a  horse  and  cart  and  provisions  for  a  year. 
Can  get  possession  the  1st  of  December. 

(Signed)  D.  DISCOURT. 


New  Orleans,  October  26,  1861. 

|  To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau : 

I  have  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  land  on  the  Jackson  Rail¬ 
road,  fifty-eight  miles  from  this  city,  at  Tickfaw  Station,  Livingston 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA. 


43 


parish  ;  forty  acres  fenced  in,  twelve  of  which  are  under  cultivation.  I 
The  place  has  a  house  on  it  and  good  outhouses.  I  am  willing  to  sell 
for  one  thousand  two  hundred  dollars  cash,  or  for  the  whole  hundred  | 
and  twenty  acres  one  thousand  eight  hundred  dollars  cash.  Fruit, 
corn,  sweet  potatoes,  tobacco,  etc.,  can  be  raised  well  here.  Has 
one  hundred  and  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  sixty  healthy  bearing 
peach  trees  on  it.  Very  good  stock  growing  country. 

(Signed)  J.  WELLMAN. 


Amite  City,  October  28,  1861. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  : 

I  have  one  thousand  acres  of  woodland,  free  from  overflow,  within 
twenty  miles  of  the  Jackson  Railroad  and  seventy  miles  from  New 
Orleans.  I  propose  to  divide  said  tract  into  forty  acre  lots  and  give 
to  a  company  of  immigrants  every  alternate  block,  on  condition  that 
each  settler  clears  and  puts  in  cultivation  twenty  acres  and  builds 
a  cabin  within  two  years.  Or  I  will  sell  said  tract  for  two  thousand 
five  hundred  dollars  cash;  or,  if  they  want,  time  at  ten  per  cent, 
interest  for  one  to  three  years.  There  are  others  adjoining  me  who 
would  divide  and  give  one-half  to  actual  settlers.  No  portion  of  the 
country  or  the  State  can  boast  of  as  good  health  and  water.  It  is 
in  the  parish  of  St.  Helena. 

(Signed)  B.  M.  MOORE. 


New  Orleans,  November  3,  1861. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  ; 

I  have  five  hundred  and  twelve  acres  of  land,  four  hundred  and 
eighty  of  which  are  good  prairie,  twelve  miles  from  Opelousas. 
|  There  are  two  houses,  suitable  for  settlers,  and  also  outhouses,  and 
I  thirty-two  acres  two  miles  from  this  tract  which  are  woodland.  The 
I  land  is  sixteen  or  seventeen  miles  west  of  Washington,  St.  Landry 
|  parish.  Steamer  runs  to  Washington  twice  a  week.  Good  cattle 
raising  country.  Principal  crops:  Cotton,  rice,  potatoes,  and  the 
best  tobacco;  also,  a  very  good  vegetable  growing  country.  One 
hundred  and  thirty  acres  of  this  land  are  fenced  in.  I  am  willing  to 
sell  said  land  at  ten  dollars  per  acre,  in  one  body,  with  all  the  im¬ 
provements  included. 

(Signed)  D.  A.  HARRISS. 


Amite  City,  November  9,  1861. 

'  To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  ; 

I  have  a  tract  of  five  hundred  and  forty  acres  eighty-one  miles 
!  from  this  city  on  the  Jackson  Railroad  which  I  will  sell  for  four 
j  thousand  dollars,  one  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  cash,  the  rest  in 

I ; ' 


44  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


three  and  four  years  at  eight  per  cent,  interest.  The  tract  is  well  i 
watered  and  heavily  timbered;  a  large  portion  rich  bottom  land,  and  i 
ajl  ready  for  cultivation. 

(Signed)  B.  M.  MOORE. 


Abbeville  Postoffice,  November  8,  1861. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  : 

I  have  two  hundred  acres  of  land,  well  fenced  in.  Good  well  of 
water.  Crops  are  cotton,  corn,  rice,  etc.  I  wish  to  get  two  large 
families,  not  to  exceed  eight  and  not  less  than  four  working  hands,  to 
work  on  shares. 

(Signed)  E.  EWING. 


Baton  Rouge,  November  14,  1861. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  : 

I  have  ten  forty-acre  lots  which  I  wish  to  sell  to  ten  German  fami¬ 
lies;  Catholics  preferred.  The  location  is  healthy — free  from  yellow 
fever  or  cholera.  Good  clear  running  water  passes  through  the  entire 
place.  The  land  is  high  and  rolling.  There  are  no  dwellings  on  the 
land,  consequently  the  immigrants  would  require  to  have  some  money 
to  build  themselves  houses.  Crops  are  cotton,  corn,  rice,  potatoes, 
etc.  Very  good  cattle  range.  I  will  sell  to  them  on  six  years’ 
credit.  One  horse  or  mule,  one  cow  and  calf,  six  head  of  hogs,  and 
farming  implements  all  on  the  same  terms. 

(Signed)  HENRY  GRAHM. 


Jackson,  November  8,  1861. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  : 

I  have  two  tracts  of  land,  one  nine  hundred  and  thirty  acres,  and 
the  other  eight  hundred  and  thirty  acres,  about  one  mile  apart, 
situated  on  the  upper  Bayou  Sara  and  Jackson  road;  the  former  is 
ten  miles  from  Bayou  Sara,  and  four  miles  from  Jackson,  the  latter 
running  to  within  one  and  a  quarter  miles  of  Jackson.  About  one 
thousand  acres  are  cleared,  inclosed,  and  in  cultivation,  and  about  I 
six  hundred  acres  uninclosed.  These  lands  I  propose  to  sell  to  im¬ 
migrants  in  any  sized  lots  they  wish,  from  ten  acres  to  the  amount  of  j 
the  whole  tract,  with  the  exception  of  the  improvements  and  two  j 
hundred  acres,  on  the  following  terms.  The  land  inclosed  and  under  j 
cultivation  I  will  sell  on  a  credit  of  one,  two  and  three  years,  with¬ 
out  interest,  for  one  hundred  pounds  of  lint  cotton  per  acre,  the 
cotton  to  be  a  good  merchantable  article,  and  the  payments  to  be 
made  at  the  end  of  the  second  and  third  years,  and  none  on  the  first. 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  45 


The  inclosed  land  I  will  sell  on  a  credit  of  one,  two,  three  and  four 
years,  without  interest,  on  the  same  terms  as  above,  requiring  no 
payments  for  first  and  second  years. 

(Signed)  W.  0.  CONNELL. 


Big  Cane,  November  16,  1861. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  : 

I  have  five  hundred  acres  of  land  (wood  four  hundred)  I  wish  to 
lease  for  three  years.  The  only  rent,  to  put  into  cultivation  whatever 
amount  of  land  the  immigrant  may  wish.  There  are  no  houses  on 
the  land.  Plenty  of  good  water.  Crops  are  cotton,  tobacco,  etc. 
About  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  this  land  is  open,  there  being 
on  an  average  one  or  two  trees  to  the  acre.  This  part  I  wish  to  sell 
at  twelve  dollars  per  acre  cash,  and  will  sell  my  dwelling  with  it,  if 
the  purchaser  will  take  the  whole  tract. 

(Signed)  LINN  TANNER. 


Coutrell  P.  0.,  November  21,  1861. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau . 

I  have  five  hundred  acres  of  land;  four  cabins.  I  wish  to  raise 
corn,  potatoes,  rice,  etc.  I  want  from  five  to  ten  men  to  work  on 
shares,  say  one-half  the  proceeds.  Will  furnish  everything  necessary. 
Will  furnish  them  money  to  buy  rations,  said  money  to  be  paid  back 
out  of  the  crop. 

(Signed)  PHILIP  LANDRY. 


Abbeville,  November  29,  1861. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  : 

This  country  is  nearly  all  prairie  land,  cut  up  with  skirts  of  wood 
on  the  bayous  and  canals.  It  produces  everything  that  I  have 
ever  planted.  It  is  one  of  the  finest  gardening  countries.  The 
orange,  banana,  fig,  citron,  etc.,  grow  well  here  when  there  is  any 
care  taken  of  them;  peaches,  apples,  cherries,  etc.,  can  also  be 
raised,  and  have  a  fine  flavor.  I  am  now  introducing  wheat,  rye 
and  oats. 

This  parish  is  better  adapted  to  persons  with  small  means  than 
any  other  in  the  State.  There  are  large  portions  of  naked  prairie 
lands  which  can  be  bought  for  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  to  five 
dollars  per  acre,  according  to  the  locality;  wood  for  fuel.  Wood  can 
be  bought  from  ten  dollars  to  twelve  dollars  per  cord,  or  can  be 
bought  standing  for  seventy-five  cents  to  one  dollar  per  cord. 
(Signed)  E.  EWING. 


46 


INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


Bastrop,  December  3,  186*1. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  : 

I  have  tracts  of  land,  which  are  in  irregular  bodies,  on  a  small 
stream  in  Carroll  parish,  Louisiana,  about  twenty  miles  from  the 
Mississippi  river  and  sixteen  miles  from  the  Vicksburg  and  Monroe 
railroad.  There  is  steamboat  navigation  on  Boeuf  river  to  within 
eight  miles  of  my  lands.  I  will  sell  these  lands  on  the  following 
terms,  in  forty  acre  lots,  or  more  if  they  choose.  Whole  body  at 
one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  cash  per  acre;  lots  of  forty  acres, 
or  more,  of  the  wild  timbered  land  at  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents. 
The  deadening  land,  with  some  timber,  in  lots  or  altogether,  at  two 
dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  acre;  all  on  two  years  credit  without  in¬ 
terest;  after  that  time,  eight  per  cent,  interest. 

(Signed)  J.  B.  MATHEWS. 


New  Orleans,  December  28,  186*7. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  : 

I  wish  to  get  families  to  settle  on  my  plantation  near  Pearl  river, 
in  St.  Tammany  parish,  on  the  following  terms:  Will  give  each  on  a 
contract  for  two  months  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
per  year,  house  rent,  rations,  fuel,  physician’s  attendance;  each 
family  taking  five  acres  to  work  for  themselves;  they  to  work  for 
me  five  and  a  half  days  in  the  week.  If  they  are  willing  to  stay,  I 
will  contract  for  two  years  on  the  same  terms.  Climate  healthy.  If 
they  are  satisfied  after  the  two  years  I  will  lease  or  sell  the  same 
lands. 

(Signed)  S.  TYLER  REED. 


St.  Francisville,  January  3,  1868. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  : 

I  have  one  thousand  eight  hundred  acres  of  land  for  sale  to  immi¬ 
grants.  I  am  willing  to  sell  to  them  at  ten  dollars  an  acre  for 
one  thousand  two  hundred  acres,  and  five  dollars  an  acre  for  six  hun¬ 
dred  acres.  On  the  one  thousand  two  hundred  acres  three  thousand 
dollars  cash,  the  balance  in  ten  years;  on  the  six  hundred  acres, 
five  hundred  cash,  if  possible,  but  not  so  particular.  I  have  houses 
on  my  place  which  they  can  live  in  until  they  build  houses  for  them¬ 
selves.  I  am  willing  to  sell  to  immigrants  in  any  sized  lots  they  may 
desire  on  the  same  terms.  Of  the  one  thousand  two  hundred 
acres,  four  hundred  are  cleared  and  eight  hundred  are  woodland. 
Of  the  six  hundred  acres  there  are  five  hundred  cleared  and  one 
hundred  woodland.  Crops :  Sweet  and  Irish  potatoes,  corn,  cot¬ 
ton,  and  sugar;  can  raise  five  hundred  pounds  of  lint  cotton  to 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA. 


4t 


the  acre.  Climate  is  healthy.  Numerous  springs  of  good  water 
are  on  these  lands.  The  place  is  within  seven  miles  of  Bayou  Sara, 
five  miles  from  Port  Hudson,  four  miles  from  Rey’s  Landing. 
(Signed)  JESSE  DAVIS. 


Independence,  January  6,  1868. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  : 

I  have  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  acres  of  land  on  the  Tangipa- 
ho.a,  right  bank,  twelve  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river,  all  of 
which  is  Cifne  land;  sawmill  on  the  place;  five  miles  from  the  Jack- 
son  Railroad.  Crops:  Cotton,  corn,  sugar,  rye,  and  oats;  potatoes 
and  gouberpeas  raised  well  here.  No  pine  on  the  land,  except  one 
hundred  trees  on  the  back  parts.  This  is  entirely  a  body  of  wood¬ 
land.  Large  schooners  go  above  and  to  this  place.  A  good  coun¬ 
try  road  to  Jackson  Railroad.  I  am  willing  to  sell  this  land  at 
three  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  acre.  I  also  have  on  the  opposite 
bank  from  the  Jackson  Railroad  cleared  land  in  a  state  of  cultiva¬ 
tion.  I  am  willing  to  take  from  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  to  five 
dollars  per  acre  for  this,  cash.  Title  is  good  to  all  these  lands. 
Right  will  be  given  immediately. 

(Signed)  W.  A.  CHAMBERS. 


Shreveport,  January  18,  1868. 


To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  : 

I  have  five  hundred  acres  of  land  in  DeSoto  parish  which  I  have 
determined  to  donate  to  actual  immigrants  and  settlers  in  fifty  acre 
lots.  Part  of  it  is  woodland  and  part  is  cleared.  I  will  furnish 
cabins  and  houses  to  these  persons,  which  they  can  move  to  the 
lands  donated  to  them. 

(Signed)  S.  D. 


Livingston  Parish,  La.,  June  15,  1861. 

In  answer  to  your  interrogatories: 

This  region,  on  account  of  the  health,  water,  and  other  advan¬ 
tages,  is  peculiarly  adapted  for  the  residence  and  well  doing  of  a 
prosperous  and  useful  population  It  contains  hammock  land  suf¬ 
ficient  for  the  support  of  a  manufacturing  population,  and  is  per¬ 
haps  as  good  a  country  for  cattle,  gardens,  and  small  farms  as  can 
be  found.  It  is  not  too  poor  for  cultivation  nor  so  rich  as  to  create 
the  sickness  which  is  always  incident  to  rich  ground  in  the  South; 
and  such  as  to  make  it  impossible  to  maintain  a  dense  manufactuing 
population,  with  their  health  unimpaired. 


48  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


The  water  is  of  the  best  and  purest  description;  pure,  clear,  and 
totally  free  from  mineral  taints — good  for  drying,  bleaching,  paper 
making,  or  in  fact  for  any  purpose  where  pure  water  is  needed. 
Wages  depend  upon  the  New  Orleans  prices  on  account  of  the 
superior  facilities  of  procuring  houses  and  the  necessities  of  life; 
they  can  be  had  at  from  thirty  to  forty  per  cent,  under  New  Orleans 
prices. 

There  is  no  acclimating  fever  known  here,  and  men  can  work 
summer  and  winter.  With  regard  to  good  schools,  churches,  etc., 
these  follow  knowledge  and  civilization,  but  do  not  precede  them, 
which  is  the  case  here. 

I  conclude  with  the  remark  that  the  best  spars,  masts,  ship,  and 
square  timber  and  turpentine,  tar,  hard  wood  timber  are  abundant, 
and  fruits  and  gardens  of  the  best  sort  are  in  abundance. 

HENRY  LEACH, 

P.  0.,  Ponchatoula. 


Amite,  June  It,  186U 

5ft*  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

The  cultivation  of  tffice,  corn,  cotton,  tobacco,  fruits,  sweet  pota¬ 
toes,  and  garden  vegetables,  all  of  which  generally  succeed  well 
and  yield  good  profits.  In  the  mechanical  and  manufacturing  de¬ 
partment  may  be  mentioned,  as  almost  certain  to  do  well,  cotton 
factories,  paper  mills,  sawmills,  brickyards,  wagon  and  carriage  fac¬ 
tories,  tanneries,  shoe  factories,  etc.  Some  of  each  of  these  have 
been  or  are  being  established.  ***** 

Lands  can  be  bought  at  from  three  to  fifty  dollars  per  acre.  They 
are  of  all  qualities,  from  light  sandy  loam  to  heavy  bottom  land,  not 
many  of  them  highly  improved.  Lands  very  near  the  railroad  which 
have  not  been  cleared  (and  they  are  plentiful)  often  produce  many  j 
times  their  cost  by  the  sale  of  the  timber  upon  them. 

Abundance  of  labor  can  be  procured  where  the  laborer  is  sure  of 
his  pay.  Unskilled  labor  receives  from  fifteen  to  twenty  dollars  -per  ! 
month  and  board;  mechanics  from  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  to  five  | 
dollars  per  day,  without  board.  Board  is  worth  from  fifteen  to  j 
twenty  dollars  per  month. 

The  soil  is  various;  some  inferior,  some  as  good  as  any  in  the 
State,  except  for  sugar.  The  grass  in  most  parts  is  particularly  fine, 
and  immense  numbers  of  cattle  and  sheep  might  be  raised  at  very 
very  little  trouble  or  expense.  For  sheep  Texas  is  not  superior;  in 
the  opinion  of  the  writer  not  so  good. 

The  water  is  pure  freestone,  abundant  and  of  the  best  quality. 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  49 


Growth — Red  oak,  white  oak,  water  oak,  pin  oak,  willow  oak,  post 
oak,  black  jack,  pine,  black  gum,  sweet  gumj  magnolia,  beech,  hick¬ 
ory,  prickly  ash,  sumac,  persimmon,  crabapple,  holly,  dogwood,  sas¬ 
safras,  hawthorn,  wild  plum,  laurel  of  many  kinds,  etc.,  to  which 
may  be  added  an  infinite  variety  of  shrubs  and  flowering  plants. 

The  country  is  wonderfully  healthy,  and  the  mortuary  records 
would,  doubtless,  show  as  small  a  proportion  of  deaths  to  the  popu¬ 
lation  as  any  other  section  of  country  North  or  South.  White  men  ! 
can  work  out  in  summer  with  safety.  Strangers  are  not  liable  to  ! 
any  acclimating  fever;  such  a  thing  is  unknown. 

There  are  some  schools  and  churches,  also  manufactories;  they  | 
appear  to  be  doing  well.  There  is'  no  prejudice  against  any  person 
on  account  of  birth,  race,  or  color,  as  I  believe  any  well  behaved 
individual  can  live  here  in  comfort  and  security. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

JOHN  M.  BACH.  I 


Amite  City,  La.,  June  14,  1861. 

*  ******** 

Many,  in  fact  almost  all  kinds  of  agricultural  products  do  well  if 
properly  attended  to — more  especially  cotton,  rice,  tobacco  aud  sugar; 
in  the  way  of  horticulture,  grapes  of  various  kinds,  peaches  and 
strawberries  grow  exceedingly  well. 

Manufactories — cotton  and  woolen,  sash  and  blind,  wooden  and 
hollow  ware,  saw  mills — will  pay  a  handsome  profit  to  the  capitalist. 
Sheep,  hogs,  cattle,  poultry,  of  every  description,  do  well.  The  price 
of  land  varies  much,  owing  to  location  and  improvements.  Im¬ 
mediately  on  the  line  of  the  road,  from  five  to  fifteen  dollars  per 
acre  for  unimproved  lands — improved  higher.  I  think  a  reasonable 
quantity  of  labor  could  be  procured  at  say  fifteen  dollars  per  month 
by  the  year,  and  found,  say  board.  Mechanics  from  two  fifty  to  five 
dollars  per  day,  and  they  find  themselves.  The  cost  of  living,  from  | 
twenty  to  twenty-five  dollars  per  month. 

The  general  character  of  the  soil  is  light  sandy  clay,  except  on  the  j 
water  courses,  where  it  is  black  and  rich.  Water  in  this  immediate 
locality  is  as  fine  as  in  any  country.  The  growth  oak,  hickory  and 
pine;  on  the  low  lands,  gum,  magnolia,  birch,  poplar,  etc. 

The  health  of  the  country  is  as  good  in  this  locality  as  in  any 
country  I  have  ever  lived  in,  and  I  have  been  in  almost  every  State 
in  the  Union. 

A  stranger  is  not  liable  to  special  acclimating  fevers.  White  per¬ 
sons  can  retain  health,  and  work  every  day  in  the  year,  if  they  will 
T 


50  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


take  reasonable  care  of  themselves.  We  have  two  churches — one 
Catholic,  the  other  Protestant.  Three  denominations  worship  in  the 
Protestant  church — Presbyterians,  Methodists,  and  Baptists. 

At  present  we  have  no  good  school  here.  There  is  a  good  open¬ 
ing  for  a  large  school  at  this  place;  if  properly  kept,  would  be  well 
patronized  by  the  city  of  New  Orleans.  There  is  a  car  factory 
seven  miles  south  of  this  place  turning  out  an  immense  sight  of 
work  for  the  road  at  a  remunerative  price.  As  to  prejudice  against 
Northern  or  Western  men  or  foreigners  that  would  interfere  with 
their  comfort  or  prosperity,  there  would  be  none;  on  the  contrary,  it 
is  the  wish  of  all  good  citizens  that  enterprising  persons  with  capi¬ 
tal  should  come  and  settle  in  our  midst.  I  have  heard  many  persons 
speak  of  it  often.  Enterprise  and  capital  is  what  we  want  to  make 
this  the  garden  spot  of  Louisiana,  or,  in  fact,  of  any  portion  of  the 
United  States — being  only  sixty-eight  miles  from  the  city,  going 
north,  having  good  water  and  healthy  climate. 

I  will  take  great  pleasure  in  corresponding  and  giving  any  inform¬ 
ation  in  my  power  in  regard  to  the  purchases  of  land  on  the  line 
of  the  road,  more  especially  in  this  vicinity,  as  I  have  resided  at 
this  place  (Amite  City)  for  ten  years,  part  of  that  time  being  en¬ 
gaged  in  the  locating  of  public  lands  on  the  line  of  the  road,  and 
am  at  this  time  agent  for  the  sale  of  a  large  quantity  of  improved 
and  unimproved  lands,  of  which  I  will  at  any  time  give,  if  requested, 
the  prices  and  locality.  When  your  book  is  open  in  the  city,  please 
inform  me  of  the  fact  and  I  will  send  you  a  list  of  persons  having 
lands  for  sale  in  this  neighborhood. 

Yours  very  respectfully, 

JOHN  F.  WENTZ, 
Notary  Public  and  Land  Agent. 


Amite  City,  La.,  June  10,  186L 

********* 
The  agricultural  interest  may  be  made  profitable  from  the  fact  that 
we  are  in  the  lap  of  New  Orleans;  and  all  vegetables,  fruits,  and 
|  grapes  grow  well  in  our  soil;  cotton,  corn,  and  potatoes  yield  finely, 

I  and  a  considerable  portion  of  our  lands  will  yield  abundant  crops  of 
rice.  As  to  the  mechanical  branches,  I  would  say  that  no  place  pos¬ 
sesses  more  advantages  than  this  does,  and  particularly  to  an  enter¬ 
prising  man  that  is  a  good  cabinet  workman.  The  great  abundance 
of  magnolia,  gum,  and  beech  timber  in  sight  of  this  place  would  fur¬ 
nish  timber  for  a  number  of  years.  As  to  manufacturing,  I  regard 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  51 

this  as  one  of  the  best  localities  for  manufacturing  cotton  and 
woolen  goods  that  can  be  found  in  the  Southern  States. 

The  manufactory  of  turpentine  and  rosin  can  be  made  to  yield  at 
least  fifty  per  cent.  As  to  the  price  of  lands,  they  vary  from  five  to 
twenty  dollars  per  acre.  As  to  the  quality  of  the  lands,  the  greater 
proportion  is  pine  lands,  interspersed  with  creek  bottoms  of  the 
richest  kind  of  soil.  As  to  the  wages  of  unskilled  men,  would  say 
about  twenty  dollars  per  month,  with  rations.  The  cost  of  living  is 
a  great  deal  owing  to  the  price  of  provisions  in  New  Orleans,  but 
can  be  greatly  reduced  by  the  cultivation  of  gardens,  etc.  You 
next  ask  what  is  the  character  of  the  country  for  health  ?  In  answer¬ 
ing  this  question,  permit  me  to  tell  you  that  I  am  from  the  healthiest 
portion  of  Tennessee  (near  Columbia),  and  I  can  safely  say  that  this 
is  the  healthiest  portion  gf  the  Southern  States  that  I  have  ever  seen. 
Over  twelve  months  since  I  purchased  a  bell  for  our  church,  and 
that  bell  has  never  yet  been  tolled  on  account  of  a  death  in  this  city. 
As  to  the  acclimating  fever  of  strangers,  I  will  answer  that  my  son 
has  practiced  medicine  in  this  place  for  eight  years,  and  says  he  has 
never  lost  a  patient  with  that  fever,  and  has  never  had  a  case  that 
did  not  yield  to  treatment  in  forty-eight  hours.  You  next  ask  if 
white  men  retain  their  health  and  work  out  during  summer  ?  I 
answer  they  can,  if  they  will  be  prudent  and  stay  in  their  houses 
at  night. 

We  have  both  male  and  female  schools.  We  also  have  Presby¬ 
terian,  Methodist,  Baptist  and  Catholic  churches  in  this  place.  We 
have  several  saw  mills  in  operation,  and  a  sash  and  blind  factory 
will  soon  be  in  operation.  Having  been  a  Southerner  all  my  life, 
and  having  been  associated  with  none  but  Southern  men,  I  can  safely 
say  that  at  the  same  time  that  a  true  Southerner  would  yield  up  the 
last  drop  of  his  blood  on  the  battle  field,  in  defense  of  the  rights,  or 
what  he  would  conceive  to  be  the  rights  of  his  section  of  the  country, 
yet  he  would  nor  could  not  harbor,  for  one  moment,  so  mean  a  thing 
as  prejudice  against  his  fellow  man,  who  had  laid  down  the  imple¬ 
ments  of  war  and  taken  up  the  plow  or  hammer.  As  an  evidence  of 
my  sincerity,  I  make  the  following  proposition: 

I,  as  agent  for  a  company,  have  in  one  body  seven  thousand  acres 
of  the  richest  cane  bottom  land,  free  from  overflow,  lying  within 
twenty  miles  of  this  place;  and  I  propose  that  if  a  company  of 
laboring  men  will  associate  themselves,  so  as  to  occupy  one-half  of 
the  whole  tract,  allowing  each  man  forty  acres,  I  will  divide  it  into 
blocks  of  that  size,  and  give  them  every  alternate  block;  and  when 
each  of  them  has  cleared  and  put  under  cultivation  twenty  acres, 

52 

INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 

and  built  a  good  log  or  other  cabin,  I  will  then  give  him  a  title  to 
said  land,  or  I  will  sell  the  whole  tract  for  five  dollars  per  acre. 

Your  friend,  etc., 

B.  M.  MOORE. 


Tangipahoa,  June  20,  1861. 

********* 

The  country  from  here  (Tangipahoa)  to  the  State  line,  is  well 
adapted  to  manufactories,  being  high,  well  watered;  the  two  creeks, 
Beaver  and  Turners,  are  sufficient  in  force  to  carry  on  a  manu¬ 
factory  of  ordinary  size.  These  creeks  are  supplied  by  springs  of 
pure  freestone  water;  the  country  through  which  they  flow  being  as 
healthy  as  any  in  the  United  States,  and  being  well  supplied  with 
the  best  of  timber  for  making  steam,  and  plenty  of  white  labor,  if  it 
was  properly  developed.  It  seems  to  me  that  nature  has  intended 
this  portion  of  the  State  for  the  purpose  of  manufacturing;  it  seems 
to  possess  more  natural  advantages  than  any  we  have  ever  seen — 
New  England  not  excepted.  Land  can  be  purchased  near  here  from 
three  to  ten  dollars,  owing  to  the  location  entirely;  most  of  the  land 
is  of  the  lowest  quality,  mostly  unimproved.  We  think  labor  could 
be  obtained  for  manufacturing  easier  than  for  other  purposes;  I  mean 
of  wool  or  cotton;  from  our  experience  it  would  seem  that  it  was 
much  easier  to  gain  a  living  by  working  in  a  wool  or  cotton  factory 
than  on  a  farm;  young  females  would  prefer  this  employment  to 
that  by  which  most  of  them  gain  a  living.  This  parish  and  Wash¬ 
ington  could  and  would,  no  doubt,  furnish  a  great  many  operatives 
in  factories  of  this  kind,  were  they  once  introduced.  Labor  could  be 
obtained  of  this  kind  quite  low,  say  from  eight  to  ten  dollars  per 
month.  Mechanics  are  scarce  and  charge  high. 

There  are  no  mechanics  now  here;  no  manufactories,  except  steam 
saw  mills.  It  costs  but  little  to  live  here  after  having  fixed  for  it, 
getting  a  garden  and  a  pair  of  cows,  etc.  The  soil  is  light  and 
thin — easy  to  cultivate;  water  good,  unsurpassed;  the  growth  is,  on 
the  hills  pitch  pine;  on  the  water  courses  oak,  beech,  hickory,  gum, 
maple,  etc.  The  health  of  this  country  is  equal  to  any  on  the  conti-  I 
nent;  the  people  raised  and  living  here  will  show  it  to  be  so  by  their  j 
age,  size,  etc.;  no  malaria  or  malignant  fever,  or  acclimating  fever,  | 
as  in  other  parts  of  the  State;  white  men  work  out  on  their  farms  I 
during  the  summer,  and  have  done  so  from  the  first  settling  of  this 
country.  We  remember  well  when  there  were  no  slaves  in  this  part  of  j 
the  State  worth  mentioning.  I  know  of  quite  a  number  of  men  over  j 
seventy  years  old  who  have  been  here  all  their  lives,  and  labored. 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  58 


Schools  are  scarce  here  for  the  present,  though  a  good  feeling  exists 
among  the  people  in  regard  to  education,  more  than  ever  was  before. 
Some  Christians  of  all  kinds,  sufficient  that  any  person  may  attend 
church  on  any  Sabbath  he  wishes. 

No  prejudices  exist  here  against  the  laboring  class  of  the  North  or 
West,  or  foreigners,  that  would  mar  their  peace,  or  interfere  with  their 
business  in  the  country;  all  are  anxious  to  have  the  country  settled 
up,  and  its  resources  developed,  and  all  join  heartily  in  uniting  and 
welcoming  strangers  here  from  any  quarter.  *  *  *  * 

Your  obedient  servant, 

*  >  E.  ADDISON. 


Tangipahoa  P.  0.,  Union  Landing,  June  15,  1861. 
********* 

I  reside  at  Union  Landing,  eighty-three  miles  from  New  Orleans, 
on  the  Jackson  Railroad.  The  face  of  the  country  is  undulating,  and 
well  washed  by  creeks  of  sufficient  capacity  to  afford  motive  power 
for  manufacturing  purposes.  On  the  borders  of  these  creeks  the 
land  is  good  for  agriculture,  but  generally  not  in  sufficient  quantities 
in  one  body  to  make  it  desirable  for  large  farming  operations,  but 
peculiarly  suitable  for  small  farmers.  Between  the  creeks  the  land 
is  rolling  and  covered  with  the  long  leaf  pine  timber,  suitable  for 
lumber,  or  for  turpentine  manufactories.  The  soil  on  the  pine  lands 
is  thin;  the  subsoil,  a  stiff  yellow  clay,  which  retains  all  the  manure 
or  fertilizers  used  to  enrich  the  land,  so  that  gardens  can  be  enriched 
to  produce  equal  to  the  best  alluvial  lands. 

Near  the  railroad,  the  lands,  including  pine  and  creek  lands,  can 
be  purchased  at  ten  dollars  per  acre;  one  or  two  miles  from  the  rail¬ 
road,  at  from  three  to  five  dollars  per  acre;  and  at  a  greater  distance, 
at  two  dollars  per  acre.  These  prices  will  apply  to  improved  as 
well  as  unimproved  lands. 

There  are  no  mechanical  or  manufacturing  establishments  in  this 
immediate  vicinity,  except  saw  mills  and  turpentine  distilleries. 
These  have  apparently  been  doing  well  until  quite  recently;  but, 
owing  to  the  high  price  and  scarcity  of  labor,  and  to  the  fact  that 
both  lumber  and  turpentine  have  receded  in  price,  they  are  not,  at 
present,  as  prosperous  .as  they  have  been. 

Labor  is  very  scarce  and  unreliable;  unskilled  white  labor  will 
command  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  dollars  per  month,  and  board; 
a  good  engineer  and  sawyer  commands  from  nine  to  twelve  hundred 
dollars  per  year;  mechanics  from  two  and  a-half  to  four  dollars  per 
day,  and  board. 


54  INFORMATION  FOR  IMMIGRANTS 


The  cost  of  living  is  moderate,  the  soil  being  well  adapted  to  gar¬ 
dens,  and  the  railroad  affording  means  of  transportation  from  the 
city,  a  man  who  has  sufficient  industry  to  make  a  garden  can  sup¬ 
port  his  family  at  a  moderate  cost. 

This  section  has  many  fine  springs;  wherever  they  are  not  conve¬ 
nient,  pure,  cool  well  water  can  be  procured  by  digging  from  twenty 
to  seventy  feet,  according  to  the  elevation  of  the  locality. 

I  think  this  locality  is  eminently  healthy,  and  strangers  are  not 
subject  to  any  special  acclimating  fever. 

I  have  ten  children,  all  in  fine  health;  my  family  is  usually  sixteen 
to  twenty  persons,  and  I  have  had  but  one  professional  visit  by  a 
physician  for  the  last  four  years.  White  men  can  and  do  work  out 
during  the  summer,  and  enjoy  uninterrupted  good  health.  We  have 
Baptist,  Methodist,  Catholic,  and  Episcopal  churches  four  miles  dis¬ 
tant.  There  are  no  schools  in  this  immediate  vicinity;  we  are  com¬ 
pelled  to  depend  at  present  on  private  instruction.  I  can  answer 
that  there  is  no  prejudice  existing  against  Northern  or  Western 
men,  or  foreigners,  that  would  interfere  with  their  comfort  and  pros¬ 
perity. 

Having  answered  the  questions  contained  in  your  circular  to  the 
best  of  my  ability, 

I  remain,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

AMOS  KENT. 

New  Orleans,  February  3,  1868. 

To  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau : 

The  water  power  on  the  Colorado  is  all  important  for  the  immi¬ 
grant  to  be  informed  of.  The  river,  with  ample  water  throughout 
the  year,  and  from  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  yards 
wide,  is  precipitated  over  ten  successive  dams  of  marble.  The  first 
is  as  blue  as  the  Egyptian  marble,  the  next  three  or  four  dams  are  | 
of  a  variegated  color,  the  tenth,  which  is  nine  and  one-half  feet  fall,  is 
white  enough  for  statues.  The  total  fall  in  one  mile  is  over  fifty  feet,  j 
The  whole  river  can  be  taken  out  of  the  dam,  and  at  thirty  yards  to  ! 
the  second  dam  gives  a  fall  of  twelve  to  thirteen  feet,  and  this  free 
from  inundation  at  high  water. 

It  is  a  famous  place  for  fish.  The  site  for  .the  town  is  very  beau¬ 
tiful.  Fifty  acres  of  land  are  laid  off  into  squares  and  lots,  the  lat-  ! 
ter  of  half  an  acre,  with  streets  eighty  feet  wide,  and  a  public 
square.  Some  years  ago  half  the  lots  were  sold  at  auction.  The 
water  power  will  propel  as  many  spindles  as  are  used  in  any  manu-  j 
factory  in  the  Northern  States. 


INTO  THE  STATE  OF  LOUISIANA.  55 


The  climate  is  delightful,  being  the  commencement  of  the  moun¬ 
tain  region,  giving  uncommon  health.  The  natural  range  is  adapted 
to  sheep,  cattle,  and  horses.  The  counties  south  and  west  of  the 
position  yield  abundantly  in  cotton;  and  the  people  require  cotton 
clothing  without  sending  the  raw  material  North  to  be  brought  back 
in  the  shape  of  manufactures.  If  the  factories  make  a  surplus  be¬ 
yond  home  consumption,  there  is  a  good  wagon  road  of  two  hun¬ 
dred  miles  to  Mexico,  where  the  articles  are  indispensable.  Some 
twenty  miles  higher  up  the  Colorado  there  are  extensive  foundries  of 
iron  in  course  of  construction;  and  a  few  miles  above  the  falls  there 
are  salt  springs  found  for  twenty  miles  up  the  valley. 

The  river  below  the  falls  is  a  succession  of  rapids  for  some  one 
hundred  miles,  but  once  a  steamboat  came  up  to  them,  and  railroads 
are  in  contemplation. 

The  country  offers  great  inducements  to  immigrants  who  are  me¬ 
chanics. 

The  whole  country  is  adapted  to  the  growth  of  the  grape.  Two 
are  indigenous,  the  mustang — a  large  sour  grape — and  a  small  grape, 
found  on  the  low  post  oak  trees,  that  is  uncommonly  sweet.  The 
grape  at  El  Paso  makes  the  most  delicious  wine  in  the  world.  The 
wheat  is  superior  to  any  other  known.  The  flour  is  brought  to  the 
New  Orleans  market  a  month  sooner  than  the  flour  of  the  Ohio  val¬ 
ley.  The  wheat  is  small  and  weighs  from  sixty  to  sixty-five  pounds 
to  the  bushel.  This  flour,  made  and  taken  to  the  tropical  regions  of 
America,  continues  sweet  longer  than  Northern  flour  and  does  not  so 
much  need  kiln-drying.  The  lands  yield  on  an  average  from  thirty 
to  forty  bushels  to  the  acre. 

I  propose  to  capitalize  the  water-power  at  the  falls  under  the  law 
of  limited  partnership. 

Very  respectfully, 

(Signed)  0.  S.  TODD. 


